Nothing to see here, really. Just the National School Boards Association (NSBA) being manipulative, deceptive, and dishonest in an attempt to avoid accountability and keep and consolidate power for themselves and their member school boards.
Let's start with how they try to completely recast the actual letter they sent to the Biden Administration as something that sounds almost reasonable.
We sent a letter to President Biden this morning asking for federal assistance to stop threats and acts of violence against public schoolchildren, public school board members, and other public school district officials and educators:
Acts of violence against schoolchildren! Call in the National Guard!!
The only problem is that it's not actually true. In fact, it's not actually true based on the evidence the NSBA itself cites.
No matter, that won't stop the corporate media from falling right into line, led by the ever-reliable CNN.
After a brief introduction, CNN shows viewers a series of clips demonstrating these acts of unspeakable violence against schoolchildren.
The only thing missing is violence.
And schoolchildren.
A quick summary:
Clip One: Some clearly enraged parents (one actually telling another to "calm down") confront what I assume to be a school board member sitting in his car (there's no context in these short clips).
"We know who you are, you will never be allowed in public again."
I think that's over the top, but how is it any different than this?
If you see anybody from that cabinet in a restaurant, in a department store, you get out and you create a crowd, and you push back on them, and you tell them they're not welcome.
Both statements are excessive but hardly require invoking the Patriot Act.
Clip Two: Another enraged parent at a school board meeting.
And I'm going to come for everybody that comes at my kid with this stupid ridiculous mandate.
Okay. Again, I'd personally use different language, but not much different, and there is no explicit threat of violence.
I mean, it's not like he's going all Maxine Waters on the Board.
Clip Three: A "non-agenda speaker" (They hate it when you don't stick to the topics they want to discuss).
We are the storm, and we are here already, and when this whole thing crumbles to the ground we will be here to hold you accountable for your crimes against humanity.
Oh no! He just threatened to hold elected officials accountable!
And we can't have that in this country.
Clip Four: An angry mob standing outside what appears to be a lobby chanting,
No more masks! No more masks!...
Invoke martial law before they start in on the vaccines!!
Clip Five: An... altercation of some kind.
Fists are flying, all of this on live television, fists are flying.
Fists were not flying. At most, fists were taxiing down the runway waiting for clearance from the tower.
Seriously, I'm picturing this guy's last fight.
Clip Six: A woman pointing to each individual board member and saying,
You are allowing child abuse.
And then the big finish when she gets to the last one.
You, with your snotty little face, you're allowing it as well.
First of all, I would never (probably) hurl a personal insult at someone in a public forum.
Second, I laugh every time I watch that clip.
Third, I'm pretty sure Bin Laden said the same thing.
That's it. The mighty CNN dug through its expansive archives of video footage in an attempt to dramatically illustrate the violence and threats being directed at school board members across the nation and this is the nothingburger they come up with.
Angry parents yelling and being rude and threatening to hold people accountable.
Again, not my style, but not exactly 9/11.
After it's once again safe to allow the children back in the room, the anchor brings on Viola Garcia, president of the NSBA, asking her "what exactly you think your members need." Garcia responded that they need "support" and "reinforcement."
These are real threats that we all just saw.
The possibility of accountability really has her wigged out.
She went on for a while talking about how school board members are part of the community and shop at grocery stores.
Seriously.
The anchor did her best to throw her a life line before she sunk out of view, taking the entire segment with her.
Are they, Viola, being threatened, you know when they're grocery shopping, do they have people coming to their houses, are there threats against their children?
The Cliff's Notes version of her response is "no."
She did nod and smile during the question, perhaps enjoying that CNN was establishing a narrative that helped her cause even though it was pure fiction.
She did make what she could of it.
The crudest incidents of threats that we've seen are the ones you have demonstrated.
Oh.
She goes on about Internet trolls for a bit and how threats come "via Internet connections." She then literally says that while rare, there have been,
...a number of incidents, perhaps, in grocery stores.
Perhaps?
Perhaps there have been a number of alien visitations in grocery stores, too, or even more unlikely, price reductions on dairy products.
I mean, perhaps.
Note that not once did CNN mention Garcia's efforts to frame opposition to school board policies as "domestic terrorism."
So where did that phrase come from?
From the actual letter the Garcia and the NSBA sent to Biden.
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.
Oh my!
In support of their argument they provide no fewer than 24 citations footnoted throughout.
Pretty impressive, assuming you hope, no, you pray, no one actually looks at them.
Why bother, right? They look so official.
I bothered.
Most of them are a rehash of what CNN already cited. But the very first one is a standout. Why?
Because it refutes everything they claim.
This is the passage in their letter that they footnote:
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.
Let's take a look at the citation supporting this statement from The Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project (ACLED), Fact Sheet: Demonstrations over Critical Race Theory in the United States.
Permit me to cite a few passages:
Yet, despite its prominence within mainstream media and in state legislatures, CRT's effect on demonstration trends within the United States has been limited compared to movements such as Black Lives Matter (BLM), Stop Asian Hate, and Cancel the Rents. 3 ACLED records 78 total demonstration events related to CRT as of early July 2021. This is fewer than 1% of all demonstrations recorded in the country since the first CRT-related demonstration was recorded on 30 October 2020 in Lewiston, Maine. Additionally, although nearly 70% of CRT-related demonstration events occurred in June 2021, they still account for fewer than 5% of all demonstration events reported around the United States that month. CRT-related demonstrations have largely been independent from other protest movements.
As demonstrations go, CRT is a drop in the bucket.
It gets better.
Approximately 20% of all CRT-related demonstration events have occurred in the six states that passed legislation to ban CRT in publicly funded schools. In these states, more than 70% of the protests have been in favor of CRT, while another 7% have included both supporters and opponents counter-demonstrating one another.
But wait, according to the NSBA letter, as quoted earlier, no one actually teaches CRT, it's just pure "propaganda!" Teachers don't care about CRT! In fact, they don't care so much, they and their indoctrinated students "account for the largest portion of associated actors."
Teachers and students account for the largest portion of associated actors, having participated in over 25% of all CRT-related demonstration events, 95% of which have been in support of teaching CRT in schools.
It's starting to sound like those of us who oppose CRT need the feds to protect us from the teachers!
And what about the violence!!!!
In at least three events, militias and other militant right-wing actors have directly reacted to the perceived threat of CRT — engaging in 6% of anti-CRT protests in the country — though all anti-CRT events involving these actors have remained peaceful.
Oops.
The rest of the links served up appear to be nothing but weak tea. There's a Substack article that includes this subheadline:
The "School Board Watchlist" goes live as protests have turned increasingly violent and ugly.
The words "violent" and "ugly" make exactly zero appearances after that. Nothing. No evidence, just an assertion.
And that "watchlist?" Home addresses? Kids' schools? Anything like that?
The site includes a database of what appears to be every school board member in the country, and includes information on policies, board meetings, and more.
Ah, their policies.
Chilling.
Another piece cited was about a man threatening a pharmacist over the vaccine.
Hey, there was some vandalism in my neighborhood last month. Let's footnote that. Could be related. You know, "perhaps."
Another favorite is this one. The headline:
Send in the drones!
I checked others, coming up with very little. I started scanning the headlines to try and find something, anything, that might support the charge of domestic terrorism and the need to invoke the Patriot Act.
Feel free to double-check me but I came up pretty empty.
What the NSBA is little more than a transparent attempt to silence opposition by bringing to bear the might of the security state under the guise of national security and using children as pawns because if you're going to go evil, you might as well go all the way.
Remember, it's not the angry language or screaming they fear.
It's people like this who are the real threat.
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