Key Points
- AG Garland asked the FBI to look into the “disturbing spike” in school admin harassment.
- Parent protests over CRT are being called acts of “domestic terrorism.”
- Prominent GOP members have promised to fight Garland’s war on free speech.
Back in 2016, then-President Barack Obama nominated Judge Merrick Garland to the Supreme Court, noting “people respect Merrick’s deep and abiding passion for protecting our most basic constitutional rights.” After the recent Garland memo, we’re left wondering if free speech is among those most basic constitutional rights:
“In recent months, there has been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools. While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views,” Garland said in the memo.
“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,” Garland added.
According to Fox News, “Garland’s announcement came just days after the National School Board Association wrote a letter to Biden asking his administration to treat parent protests at school board meetings as possible acts of ‘domestic terrorism.’ The association also wrote that some of the ‘threats’ to school boards involved reports that critical race theory (CRT) was being proliferated in classrooms, which it called ‘propaganda.’
But it’s not propaganda. Many of these “threats” or “acts of domestic terrorism” are nothing more than concerned school parents speaking passionately against Critical Race Theory being taught in schools, or inappropriate “woke” lesson plans being forced on their children.
GOP Senator Josh Hawley (R-MO) reminded the AG that this is something that’s happening all over the country.
“All around the country, Americans are speaking out against the radical racist ideology sometimes called ‘critical race theory,’” Hawley wrote to Garland. “Americans have responded to this radical ideology by winning elections for local school boards and protesting peacefully at school board meetings. Yet your memo yesterday to the FBI and local U.S. Attorneys ignored all of this and warned of an insurgence of ‘threats of violence’ and ‘efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views.’”
Florida Governor Ron DeSantis responded to the news of Garland’s memo on Twitter, accusing the Attorney General of “weaponizing the DOJ.”
“Attorney General Garland is weaponizing the DOJ by using the FBI to pursue concerned parents and silence them through intimidation,” the Republican governor tweeted. “Florida will defend the free speech rights of its citizens and will not allow federal agents to squelch dissent,” DeSantis wrote.
It sounds like the war for our nation’s classrooms is just getting started.
