Democratic Rep. Jamie Raskin of Maryland omitted crucial details while arguing on Tuesday that former President Joe Biden’s administration did not vilify parents who protested at school board meetings.
Raskin, during a House Judiciary Committee hearing on Justice Department weaponization, referenced an Oct. 4, 2021 memo from then-Attorney General Merrick Garland that directed the FBI to “use its authority” in response to school personnel facing threats. He said the memo did not target parents, adding it did not explicitly mention them, but he neglected to say that it followed a Sept. 29, 2021 letter from the National School Board Association (NSBA) requesting the federal government get involved in the “immediate threat” of parents who spoke and protested at school board meetings.
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“I hear about the prosecution and vilification of parents, of mothers and fathers. And hey, I’m a father. My kids went to public school,” Raskin said. “That doesn’t sound very good to me, so I try to get to the bottom of this because I’ve been hearing about it for five years now. And I ask myself, what are they talking about? So I get the memo, which was from Attorney General Merrick Garland.”
“And it begins — I don’t have time to read the whole thing — ‘there’s been a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school administrators, teachers, board members and staff.’ The words ‘mother’ or ‘father’ don’t appear, the word ‘parent’ doesn’t appear here,” he said. “There’s all of this propaganda about some prosecution of parents [that] is based on absolutely nothing. This is just made up out of thin air, so I will submit this for the record.”
The NSBA said in its letter that the incidents of parents protesting at school board meetings could be “the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.” Parents during this period were spearheading the charge against controversial issues, including mask and vaccine mandates, schools reopening, remote learning, transgender policies and Critical Race Theory.
NSBA leadership apologized to its members over the letter “for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations.” The organization’s leaders reportedly worked with the Biden White House for “several weeks” prior to releasing the letter, according to emails obtained by Parents Defending Education.
Featured Image Credit: Slowking4
