Coming for angry school parents: Is the Biden DOJ criminalizing conservative dissent?
Are the feds really planning to come after school parents?
It’s inarguable that some angry parents and patrons upset about COVID-19 mask mandates and more have caused completely inappropriate disruptions at school board meetings in the Kansas City area. The Park Hill Board of Education had to clear the room before voting on its mask policy in August.
But while the disruptions have sometimes been worse around the country, many conservatives feel the U.S. Department of Justice is attempting to intimidate them into obedience with threats to intervene federally in disorderly local government meetings. The feeling is especially acute since the parents and patrons know that what they’re opposing — mask mandates and critical race theory — are part and parcel of Biden administration and Big Tech orthodoxy.
The added insult — in which the National School Boards Association wrote that the sometimes heated opposition to mask mandates and CRT “could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism” — might have a chilling effect on parental involvement at school board meetings. Or it might only heat things up.
Dave Trabert, chief executive officer of the Kansas Policy Institute, says he has already noticed what may be a chilling effect in the area. He was one of those signed up to address the Gardner-Edgerton Board of Education this Monday, but says “I am one of the few who haven’t dropped out over fear of prosecution.”
That’s purely anecdotal, and that fear, if real, may be overblown. I don’t think the FBI has mobilized on this just yet. But the spectre of it is ominous and broad. And the DOJ’s announcement seems more political than criminal in nature.
“A war on all parents has been declared by the Biden DOJ and Attorney General (Merrick) Garland,” says Natalie Scholl, vice president of the new Kansas City grassroots group Northland Parents. “Whether we are conservatives or liberals, all parents should be extremely concerned that a federal government entity like the Department of Justice has the audacity to consider concerned parents who are disgusted by what is happening in our schools a threat to others.”
“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Garland wrote in the announcement. Absolutely. But so is criminalizing dissent. And that’s what this feels like to many of us.
Nor is there yet any equivalence whatsoever between angry school parents and what happened during the Black Lives Matter protests a year ago. In Kansas City alone, police officers were pelted with such things as frozen water bottles, rocks, bricks, urine, fireworks and a heavy can of pork and beans. Pallets of bricks were found nearby, indicating organization, forethought and much effort on someone’s part.
When that starts happening at school board meetings, you’ll know. And local authorities will no doubt pounce on it, as they should. This is not a federal issue, nor domestic terrorism, by any stretch. What an insult to parents.
“Local authorities are capable of handling local situations that cross the line from free speech to illegal conduct,” tweets Kansas Attorney General Derek Schmidt.
Yep. And I, for one, don’t trust the hyper-political federal government to decide where that line is.
“Missouri parents have every right to know what is being taught to their children and voice their opinions on the subject,” Gov. Mike Parson adds in a tweet. “We strongly oppose any effort by the Biden administration to use the DOJ or FBI to limit parental dissent in our schools.”
Forgive conservatives for once again feeling under siege for their political views. It seems as if anger and protest by the left are basically holy sacraments, while they’re crimes if done on the right.
This story was originally published October 11, 2021 at 5:00 AM.
