Over the last two years, controversy has erupted in school districts all across the United States.
On one side are concerned parents who want their children to be educated with facts, not indoctrinated with left-wing ideology by "woke" teachers in public school classrooms. A "parental rights" movement has sprung up trying to protect our children from age-inappropriate sex education, radical gender fluidity ideology, anti-American history courses, and Critical Race Theory (CRT) that itself is racist.
In 2021 the Biden administration began to treat angry parents who showed up at school board meetings as the equivalent of domestic terrorists. The National School Boards Association sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland complaining of what it called "disruptive behavior" at school board meetings and suggested that parents might be violating the Patriot Act, a law passed in the aftermath of 9/11. A special reporting line was set up at the FBI for school board members and others to "snitch" on aggressive parents.
There was a tremendous backlash against this heavy-handed federal response to parents simply utilizing their freedom of speech and freedom to assemble. In spite of claims to the contrary, there was no increase in violence or threats of violence against school board members. Nonetheless, the publicity of FBI involvement intimidated some parents who feared federal prosecution.
Now parents are receiving well-deserved help. The House Judiciary Committee just issued subpoenas for FBI Director Christopher Wray, Attorney General Merrick Garland, and Education Secretary Miguel Cardona, requiring them to turn over to the committee documents and correspondence involving the FBI's "misuse of federal criminal and counter-terrorism resources" to politically persecute conservative parents who attended school board meetings.
The Judiciary Committee is specifically looking into a meeting on October 4, 2021, during which the attorney general told the FBI to work with U.S. attorneys and local law enforcement to identify parents who could represent threats.
Representative Jim Jordan, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, promises to conduct a full investigation. No parent in America should be harassed by federal law enforcement simply for speaking out in defense of their children.