Former President Donald Trump condemned the Biden Department of Justice for its memorandum directing the FBI to mobilize against parents expressing their concerns about Critical Race Theory (CRT) and mask mandates to local school officials.
“It’s very tough because the parents are very wounded by what’s taken place by, in many cases, radical left school boards,” Trump said during an interview with Just the News on the John Solomon Reports podcast Tuesday. “And you would certainly think they have a voice — and they have a voice — as to how their children are going to be educated, brought up and educated.”
Old and busted: The War on Terror
New hotness: The War on Citizens Who Dissent from the Regime https://t.co/4pWmMLgINw— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 4, 2021
Trump described the announcement of the memorandum as a “very tough stance.”
“There’s no question about it,” he continued. “I heard that late last night. And I was somewhat surprised by it. But nothing surprises me too much anymore.”
Education Sec. Won't Say Parents are "Primary" Stakeholders in Children's Education pic.twitter.com/SWLlXh6MGx
— Breitbart News (@BreitbartNews) October 1, 2021
During a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday, Biden Deputy Attorney General Lisa Monaco agreed with Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) it is not “domestic extremism” for a parent to advocate for a child’s best interests at local school board meetings.
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR). (Stefani Reynolds-Pool/Getty Images).
“Is it domestic extremism for a parent to advocate for their child’s best interests?” Cotton asked Monaco.
“I think the, what you have described- no I would not describe as domestic extremism,” she responded.
In response to a letter last week by the National School Boards Association (NSBA), in which the organization asked President Joe Biden for “federal law enforcement and other assistance” to cope with frustrated parents at local school board meetings, Attorney General Merrick Garland mobilized the FBI, working with U.S. attorneys across the country, against parents, based on NSBA reports of incidents the group characterizes as “threats or actual acts of violence against our school districts.”
US Attorney General Merrick Garland. (MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images).
Included in its list of examples of “threats of actual acts of violence” for which NSBA is seeking federal law enforcement assistance are:
An individual was arrested in Illinois for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct during a school board meeting. During two separate school board meetings in Michigan, an individual yelled a Nazi salute in protest to masking requirements, and another individual prompted the board to call a recess because of opposition to critical race theory.
In New Jersey, Ohio, and other states, anti-mask proponents are inciting chaos during board meetings … A resident in Alabama, who proclaimed himself as “vaccine police,” has called school administrators while filming himself on Facebook Live.
NSBA asked Biden to issue an executive order that would serve to protect school officials and school board members from parents after review of “appropriate enforceable actions against these crimes and acts of violence under the Gun-Free School Zones Act, the PATRIOT Act in regards to domestic terrorism, the Matthew Shepard and James Byrd Jr. Hate Crimes Prevention Act, the Violent Interference with Federally Protected Rights statute, the Conspiracy Against Rights statute.”
The school boards organization complained in its letter that parents are objecting to the teaching of concepts of Critical Race Theory.
“This propaganda continues despite the fact that critical race theory is not taught in public schools and remains a complex law school and graduate school subject well beyond the scope of a K-12 class,” NSBA asserted.
Last month, however, the United States Conference of Mayors adopted a resolution during its annual convention in which its members pledged to support the teaching of CRT in K-12 schools.
“NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED, the nation’s mayors support the implementation of CRT in the public education curriculum to help engage our youth in programming that reflects an accurate, complete account of BIPOC history,” the mayors stated.
In July, the National Education Association (NEA), the nation’s largest teachers’ union, also moved to openly promote the teaching of Critical Race Theory in K-12 schools and to oppose any bans on instruction in both the Marxist ideology and the widely discredited New York Times’ “1619 Project.”
The union agreed to “research the organizations attacking educators,” doing what it referred to as “anti-racist work,” as well as to “use the research already done and put together a list of resources and recommendations for state affiliates, locals, and individual educators to utilize when they are attacked.”
NEA dismissed the outrage of grassroots parents, claiming the main critics of Critical Race Theory are “well-funded” conservative groups.
“The attacks on anti-racist teachers are increasing, coordinated by well-funded organizations such as the Heritage Foundation,” the union said. “We need to be better prepared to respond to these attacks so that our members can continue this important work.”
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