Until very recently, it would have been unimaginable that the U.S. government would ever consider as domestic terrorists parents who dare to protest against the numerous destructive policies of local school boards. Yet what was until recently unimaginable has now become reality with the Biden administration, and it is not surprising that the administration’s outlandish stance is drawing enormous public outrage.
According to a memorandum released on Monday, Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to mobilize against parents who oppose Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools, citing “threats” against the school board members and teachers who “participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.”
Writes Garland,
“The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate.
The attorney general added that the Department of Justice (DOJ) is set to announce a series of measures aimed at addressing “the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel” in the coming days.
In the meantime, Merrick ordered the FBI, working with each U.S. Attorney, to conduct meetings and consultations with the local law enforcement to develop “strategies” to address the “threats.”
The DOJ also encouraged the public to report the “threats” to the FBI’s National Threat Operations Center (NTOC). “Reporting threats of violence through NTOC will help the federal government identify increased threats in specific jurisdictions as well as coordinated widespread efforts to intimidate educators and education workers,” the department explains.
In addition, the DOJ is drafting training materials for “potential victims” to properly identify potential threats and offenders, and how to capture and collect evidence of the “crimes” perpetrated against them.
The memo came after the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden last Wednesday claiming that “America’s public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat.” The organization urged the president to act against the “angry mobs” of parents expressing their frustration at school board meetings over the mask mandates and CRT by designating them as “domestic terrorists” and applying a “PARTIOT Act” to them.
The letter cited about a dozen of minor incidents that have occurred recently at school board meetings in several states. Then, there was a “threatening” letter sent to one of the school board officials in Ohio that called him a “filthy traitor.” The letter implied loss of pension funds and labeled the school board Marxist. Another illustration of “intimidation” was a parent who expressed his view of mask mandates by giving a Nazi salute during a debate on the subject.
While it goes as an axiom that no one should be physically threatened, in the rare cases when that actually happens, it is the responsibility of local law enforcement to handle them without the feds’ intervention. After all, the cases of “intimidation” quoted by the NSBA look like a mere execution of the parents’ rights to free speech and assembly protected by the First Amendment. Yet the Biden administration has dubbed such cases of “intimidation” as “terrorism.”
The DOJ’s announced crackdown on concerned parents infuriated them even more.
Asra Nomani, vice president of investigations and strategy at Parents Defending Education, posted on Twitter: “Dear @TheJusticeDept Merrick Garland and @FBI Director Christopher Wray, This is what a domestic terrorist looks like? You are criminalizing parenting, and you owe the people of America a swift apology.” In her video address to the top officials, Nomani explained the desperate situation shared by her and other parents. Concerned about the local school board policies, the parents in Nomani’s group attended school-board meetings and wrote letters to school-board members, asking questions and voicing their disagreement. Yet, Nomani says, they remained constantly ignored. Still, Nomani, a single mom and a Muslim, kept on coming to the meetings.
“For you to dare to try to smear parents as domestic terrorists just reflects just how tone-deaf school boards and officials became to pleas of parents on behalf of their children,” Nomani said. She asked the policymakers to “think deeply” about whether they really want to “declare war on parents,” which is, in the end, a “war on children,” because one do not go without the others. She added that the parents “will not back down,” because they are “strong and committed.”
Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined with parents on Tuesday in their criticism, accusing Garland of focusing on “the democratic pushback against critical race theory,” and not the actual violence, evidence of which was never provided.
Republican Leader of the Education and Labor Committee Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.) called Merrick’s memo “disgusting.” She stated:
“I am shocked and appalled to see a President cave to terrorists overseas then threaten innocent American families seeking to better their children’s education under the guise of fighting ‘domestic terrorism.’ Democrats have been saying, for years, that they do not trust parents to raise their own children. This dystopian move by the Attorney General is an escalation of that noxious belief.”
Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has also spoken out and vowed the Sunshine State “will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent.”
British journalist Piers Morgan has summed up the DOJ’s move by calling Biden’s declaration of war against parents “a shameful abuse of his power” worthy of totalitarian China and North Korea. He wrote,
There are many countries whose governments shut down such dissent. I’m thinking of brutal totalitarian regimes like China and North Korea. But America is supposed to be the land of the free, the very epicenter of free speech protected by a First Amendment that is the envy of the world.
If the Biden administration cared about resolving the situation, it would not criminalize parents, but would instead try to understand and address their legitimate concerns, such as COVID restrictions and forced vaccinations, CRT, LGBTQ issues, and books promoting sexual perversions and pedophilia being available in student libraries. But why would Biden do that, if degrading, dividing, and dumbing down a growing generation is his actual goal?
