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The Biden Administration’s Department of Justice (DOJ) asked the FBI to address the “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.” The request came through a memo from Attorney General Merrick Garland, addressed to Christopher Wray, the director general of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The memo comes three days after the National School Boards Association argued in a letter that parents who are unhappy with Critical Race Theory (CRT) may be committing acts of “domestic terrorism” or “hate crimes” against school board officials and teachers.
“Coupled with attacks against school board members and educators for approving policies for masks to protect the health and safety of students and school employees, many public school officials are also facing physical threats because of propaganda purporting the false inclusion of critical race theory within classroom instruction and curricula,” reads a letter from the NSBA.
That missive, on page six, states, “As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes.”
Biden’s DOJ going after parents who are unhappy with Critical Race Theory?
Mr. Garland’s memo avoids mentioning key terms like Critical Race Theory or the heated discussions parents have had with school board members across the country. However, Randi Weingarten, the teachers union president, publicly thanked the attorney general for the memo to the FBI.
“Thank you #DOJ …Merrick Garland tackles threats to educators amid critical race theory furor,” Weingarten wrote on Twitter.
In the wake of the memo, the context of the NSBA letter, and Weingarten’s acknowledgements; various politicians, researchers, and conservative activists accused the Biden Justice Department of persecuting parents for simply opposing CRT.
“BREAKING: Attorney General Merrick Garland has instructed the FBI to mobilize against parents who oppose critical race theory in public schools, citing “threats.” The letter follows the National School Board Association’s request to classify protests as ‘domestic terrorism,'” writer and researcher Christopher F. Rufo charged on Twitter.
“The Biden administration is rapidly repurposing federal law enforcement to target political opposition. They want to reclassify dissent as “disinformation” and “domestic terrorism,” justifying an unprecedented intervention, both directly and in partnership with tech companies,” Rufo added in another tweet.
Following that first complaint, several conservative politicians, including Senators Ted Cruz (R-TX), Tom Cotton (R-AK) and Joshua Hawley (R-MO), criticized the DOJ for the memo.
“At his confirmation hearing, Merrick Garland promised not to follow the Obama model of weaponizing DOJ to target & persecute his political opponents. Just a few months in, he’s already breaking that promise. #CriticalRaceTheory,” Senator Cruz noted on Twitter.
“Parents are speaking out against Critical Race Theory in schools. Now the Biden administration is cracking down on dissent,” Senator Cotton wrote in a tweet.
“Now Joe Biden is deploying the FBI against parents who have concerns about Critical Race Theory being taught to their children. This is a remarkable and dangerous abuse of power,” wrote, in turn, Senator Hawley, who also strongly questioned Deputy U.S. Attorney General Lisa Monaco in the wake of the memo.
“Is waiting to express ones views at a school board meeting harassment and intimidation?”… “What do those terms (harassment and intimidation) mean in the context of a school board meeting?”
“I’m not aware of anything like this in American history (…) you’re using the FBI to intervene in school board meetings, this is extraordinary.”
Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón is a journalist at El American specializing in the areas of American politics and media analysis // Emmanuel Alejandro Rondón es periodista de El American especializado en las áreas de política americana y análisis de medios de comunicación.
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