A Pennsylvania middle school reportedly tries to conceal student's gender preferences from their parents



A middle school in Pennsylvania reportedly has been encouraging teachers to conceal a student’s preferred pronouns and gender preference from the student's parents.

The New York Post reported that an email conversation between teachers and a school counselor at the Charles F. Patton Middle School in Kennett Square, Pennsylvania, revealed that the student “prefers the pronouns they/them.”

“She is fine too, but [the student] likes ‘they/them’ the best,” the school counselor said via email.

The educator also suggested that “if you are emailing home, it may be best to use she/her when referring to [the student].”

The teacher’s email reportedly contained “A Guide to Supporting Trans and Gender Diverse Students,” authored by the American Psychological Association.

Reportedly an email exchange also occurred between a school counselor and two teachers about a club at the Unionville High School called the “Gender Sexuality Alliance.”

The school website described the student organization as “a student-run club which provides a safe place for students to meet, support each other, talk about issues related to sexual orientation and gender identity and expression, and work to end homophobia and transphobia.”

A counselor and teacher from the Charles F. Patton Middle School discussed how to start a similar club at their school or how they might be able to give their students the opportunity to attend Gender Sexuality Alliance meetings at Unionville High.

Emails also revealed that when an online assignment prompted a student to describe themselves as being "pansexual," the school counselor encouraged the student’s teacher to “ask [the student] if they would be interested in starting some type of club or group to focus on LGBTQ+ topics/issues.”

Another teacher reportedly wrote, “Middle schoolers are NOT too young to know their sexual orientations and gender identities. LGBTQ-related content is age appropriate for them.”

Fox News reported that No Left Turn in Education, a group saying they “believe that K-12 education should be free from indoctrination and politicization,” heavily criticized the school’s actions.

The organization’s president, Dr. Elana Fishbein, said, “It is unconscionable for any teacher to go behind a parent's back to meddle in a child's mental, physical and emotional health. While us concerned parents get called domestic terrorists, it's the radical ideologues who actually threaten, harass, and intimidate parents who object to their woke agenda. No Left Turn in Education is standing up for these families and is holding officials accountable for enforcing the laws that are supposed to protect our kids.”

VIDEO: Mom eviscerates 2 California teachers accused of coaching her 12-year-old to change genders behind her back



The family of a 12-year-old middle school student in Salinas, California, recently accused two teachers of secretly coaching the young girl's gender transition behind their backs, according to videos posted online this week.

What are the details?

During a Spreckels Union School District board meeting on Wednesday, the girl's mother and grandfather sounded off on the district, alleging that school staff altered her name and pronouns without their consent and called Child Protective Services when they objected to her social transition.

The family said that teachers didn't even notify them after finding out their daughter was suicidal.

The girl's mother, identified as Jessica Konen by the Epoch Times, alleged in her speech that her daughter's clandestine transition occurred within an LGBTQ+ club at Buena Vista Middle School.

"I am outraged," the mother said, asking, "Is this really barely coming to light?"

"How could you even allow this?" she continued. "You allowed these teachers to open their classrooms teaching predatorial information to a young child ... that doesn't even know how to comprehend it all."

The speeches were also documented in a Twitter thread posted by the profile "Libs of TikTok."

The school reportedly called the parents in for a meeting where they informed them that their daughter is trans. The teacher then proceeded to call CPS on them when they didn\u2019t use the \u201ccorrect\u201d name and pronouns. \n\nThis is the dad\u2019s speech tonight:pic.twitter.com/17gl3QBRrQ
— Libs of Tik Tok (@Libs of Tik Tok) 1639634353

"How do you not know what is going on at your campuses?" the enraged mother went on to say, declaring, "You took away my ability to parent my child."

The grandfather, identified as Gunter Konen, claimed during his speech that his granddaughter is "confused because she was coached" by the teachers.

"CPS was called on my daughter because she went into school to have a discussion with a teacher for hiding the fact that she was given a new name, a boy's name," he added, noting that to refer to a child as a boy simply because the child claims to be a boy is "vile nonsense."

CPS later dropped the case, the Epoch Times reported.

"Kids are impressionable at that age," the grandfather said, also suggesting that "we need God back in America. We need God back in schools."

What's the background?

The teachers in question appear to have been the subject of an exposé article published last month by Abigail Shrier, a Wall Street Journal reporter and the author of "Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing Our Daughters."

In the article, Shrier claimed that leaked audio from an October California Teachers Association conference showed Buena Vista Middle School teacher and LGBTQ club leader Lori Caldeira and fellow middle school teacher Kelly Baraki describing how they recruited students into the club and concealed the students’ activities from parents.

The teachers reportedly admitted that they recruited kids into the club, in part, by stalking their Google searches and monitoring their conversations.

Outrage over the teachers' behavior reportedly prompted the district to announce significant changes in November.

In a letter to parents, the district announced that the school club, called UBU ("You Be You"), had been suspended and that teachers were no longer permitted to monitor students' online activity, among other changes, according to KSBW-TV. Though it was not clear what action was taken against Caldeira and Baraki.

The letter only said: "Regarding the teachers involved, appropriate personnel steps are being taken to make sure such activities and comments will not be repeated."

Anything else?

In an interview with Epoch Times prior to the school board meeting, Jessica Konen said her daughter was coaxed into joining the club when she was in sixth grade, where teachers began affirming bisexuality. By seventh grade, she was called into the school for a meeting with her daughter, a teacher, and the school principal.

There, the teacher informed her that her daughter was "trans fluid."

"They kept looking at me angrily because I kept saying ‘she,’ and that it was going to take me time to time to process everything,” Jessica Konen said. “I was very confused. ... I was very upset. I was blindsided — completely blindsided.”

Within a few days of the meeting, the King City Police Department reportedly showed up at the family's residence, saying a complaint had been made to CPS.

Konen said that her daughter is now attending a different school.

Conservative anti-CRT candidates snag shocking victories in deep blue Houston school board races



Anti-critical race theory conservatives continued their impressive run on school board posts across the country over the weekend — this time snagging shocking victories in heavily Democratic Houston, Texas.

What are the details?

Two conservative candidates running for the Houston Independent School District's board ousted incumbent Democrats in runoff elections Saturday, the Houston Chronicle reported.

In one race, a local pastor named Kendall Baker edged out incumbent trustee Holly Maria Flynn Vilaseca, and in another, a former parent-teacher organization president, Bridget Wade, pulled off a victory against incumbent trustee Anne Sung.

Every seat on the nine-member board had previously been filled by a progressive, the Chronicle noted.

According to KHOU-TV, issues that have sparked nationwide debate in recent months — such as mask mandates and the teaching of critical race theory and other progressive ideologies in classrooms — played a major role in the elections.

One of the ousted incumbents, Sung, complained that the issues should not have been factors.

“Knocking on doors in District 7, it was pretty clear to me that the impression that voters have of public schools, if they don’t themselves have children in public schools, is informed by Fox News and national news coverage that has nothing to do with what our kids are being taught," Sung said, according to the Chronicle.

“The fear that kids are being taught critical race theory or taught that they are victims is completely opposite of what we’re doing in HISD schools,” she claimed.

But the newly elected trustee Wade said that parents are justifiably outraged at how their taxpayer money is being spent and are finally speaking up.

“People want to have a say in their public education as taxpayers and parents and families. People want to be active participants and be heard, and so I think it was people crying out to be heard. That was the foundation from which everything came,” he explained.

What else?

Houston is just the latest Democratic-majority community to experience a school board shake-up over the last several months.

In November, reports surfaced showing that backlash over mask mandates, critical race theory, and transgender-affirming policies in schools had resulted in sweeping changes in school boards across the country.

Newly-formed political action committee the 1776 Project PAC — whose aim is to elect conservative, "anti-CRT" candidates to public school boards nationwide — announced that it had won three-fourths of its 58 races across seven states on Election Day.

Axios covered the news by noting that anti-CRT candidates were "not just winning in Republican areas; several candidates won in solid blue counties: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Passaic County, New Jersey; and Johnson County, Kansas."

Parents accuse NYC Department of Education and Mayor de Blasio of attempting to 'silence' them



New York City parents of children in public schools are accusing outgoing Mayor Bill de Blasio of attempting to silence them.

In an op-ed for the New York Post, Maud Maron and Danyela Souza Egorov say that a proposed regulation would allow the city Department of Education "to discipline and remove elected parents from Community Education Councils (our school-board equivalent) if they criticize the school district they are meant to hold accountable."

The rule, Chancellor's Regulation D-210, prohibits discrimination and harassment and says "conduct that violates this regulation may serve as a basis for discipline, even if it does not rise to the level of a violation of federal, state or local discrimination laws." It would apply to all elected or appointed members of any of the 32 Community District Education Councils, or four citywide education councils in New York.

Its stated purpose is to "develop and maintain a positive and supportive environment for elected and appointed parent leaders that is free of discrimination, harassment, bias, racism, and intimidation."

But the parents write that the "vague language" outlining what kind of conduct is prohibited is too broad. They also criticize the rule for establishing an "equity-compliance officer" to enforce it.

"This (no doubt expensive) bureaucrat would be charged with deciding who to target for removal for violating the newly expanded 'code of conduct,'" the parents write.

They charged that other provisions of the proposed rule are attempts by the DOE to "censor speech it finds inconvenient."

One section says council members cannot engage in “frequent verbal abuse and unnecessary aggressive speech” with others. The regulation also allows the chancellor to request a CEC member be removed if she believes the member’s conduct is “contrary to the best interest of the New York City school district.” Conduct that happens outside of CEC meetings or public appearances could serve as a basis for a complaint and removal, as long as the conduct “creates or would foreseeably create a risk of disruption within the district or school community.”

Even worse, an Equity Council, a team of DOE-appointed apparatchiks, would be tasked with providing recommendations on the resolutions of complaints — in other words who to remove and silence. The regulation ominously says that “in the event of a disagreement between the Equity Compliance Officer and the Equity Council, the recommendation of the Equity Compliance Officer shall govern.” Using equity language to cover up the undemocratic impulse to unseat critics is a transparent ploy.

The op-ed authors note that this rule is being proposed just after parents voted directly for CEC members, and "flipped" some councils by electing representatives who are vocally critical of DOE policies.

"While the DOE pretends this regulation is about protecting students, it includes language that is clearly meant to shield the DOE from any and all criticism from duly elected council members," they write.

The New York City Department of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

The Panel for Education Policy will vote on Chancellor's Regulation D-210 on Dec. 21.

Across the nation, parents have come into conflict with school boards over issues related to COVID-19 policies, the content of school libraries, accommodations for transgender students, and more. Some of these heated confrontations over the past year generated national media coverage. In response, the National School Board Association wrote to the Biden administration, requesting that federal law enforcement investigate incidents of violence and comparing protesting parents to "domestic terrorists."

That letter prompted many state school board associations to withdraw from membership in the NSBA, and the national body eventually issued an apology for the language used in its letter to Biden.


Whistleblower email shows the FBI is, in fact, using counterterrorism tactics to monitor parents protesting school boards



Despite Attorney General Merrick Garland's insistence otherwise, the FBI has, in fact, begun using counterterrorism tactics to track and investigate concerned parents protesting at school board meetings, according to a whistleblower email released this week by House Republican lawmakers.

What are the details?

The email, obtained and posted to Twitter by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday, shows that FBI leadership instructed agents to monitor and "track" any "threats of violence or fear" against "school board administrators, members, teachers, and staff" to determine whether the alleged threats violated federal law.

To do so, the bureau created a "threat tag, EDUOFFICIALS," for agents to use to "identify" the motivation behind the threats and decipher whether there are "federal violations that can be investigated and charged."

In the email, sent on Oct. 20, FBI Assistant Director for Counterterrorism Timothy Langan specifically mentions that these actions were taken in accordance with an internal Department of Justice memo sent by Garland on Oct. 4.

FROM THE WHISTLEBLOWER:pic.twitter.com/4IfJRPVKMk

— House Judiciary GOP (@JudiciaryGOP) 1637093531

Yet during testimony in front of Congress last month, Garland emphatically dismissed the notion that his department was treating parents like "domestic terrorists" and using counterterrorism tactics to investigate them.

"I can't imagine any circumstance in which the PATRIOT Act would be used in the circumstances of parents complaining about their children, nor can I imagine a circumstance where they would be labeled as domestic terrorism," the attorney general said, in part.

In his Oct. 4 memo, Garland called on the FBI to help address an alleged "disturbing spike" of "harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence" against local education personnel. The email came just days after the National School Boards Association sent a letter to the White House comparing concerned parents to "domestic terrorists."

What else?

House Judiciary Republicans, led by ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio), said Tuesday that the email "calls into question the accuracy and completeness" of Garland's testimony before Congress.

"At best if we assume that you were ignorant of the FBI's actions in response to your October 4 memorandum at the time of your testimony, this evidence suggests that your testimony to the committee was incomplete and requires additional explanation," Jordan wrote in the letter addressed to the attorney general.

In a separate statement, House GOP Leader Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) said the email shows that "Garland was either ignorant of the actions of the agency he leads, or was purposely misleading Congress during his answers."

McCarthy further called the FBI's actions against concerned parents "an egregious abuse of power" and "further proof that we have a President in the White House who is more interested in going after our own citizens, including concerned parents, than he is in going after actual threats."

"Attorney General Garland must return to Congress to address, under oath, in detail, the discrepancies regarding the directives he issued involving investigating America's parents," he demanded.

19-year-old routs incumbent in school board race after 'awful' COVID lockdowns ruined his senior year



A New Jersey high school graduate who had his senior year disrupted by "awful" COVID-19 shutdowns defeated an incumbent candidate in his local school board race this week.

What are the details?

Nicholas Seppy, a 19-year-old graduate of Egg Harbor Township High School, trounced his opponent, sitting board member Terre Alabarda, by about 18 percentage points in New Jersey's election on Tuesday.

Seppy reportedly garnered 59% support with 4,042 votes while Alabarda earned just 41% with 2,830 votes, according to Atlantic County's election results webpage.

In conversation with the College Fix, Seppy slammed the shutdowns as "awful" and said that he decided to run for a seat on the school board "out of a desire to serve in [his] community" and to "give parents a voice in the district."

The recent graduate made a similar statement to the Washington Examiner, telling the news outlet that he ran because he saw that "parents were not being listened to" and "wanted to give them a voice on behalf of their children."

He added that extensive school closures and experiments with distance learning had a negative effect on student morale.

"Hybrid education was not yielding the enthusiasm in students they thought it would," he said, specifically citing younger students who ended up missing "out on an entire year of education."

The Press of Atlantic City reported that after closing in March 2020 due to the pandemic, schools in Egg Harbor Township have been operating under either an entirely online or partially in-person instruction model for most of the 2020-2021 school year.

What else?

In an Instagram post announcing his win, Seppy said, "My passion for the community of Egg Harbor Township is entirely everlasting, I aspire to set a positive example for our district. EHT shall have an excellent reputation, in both our standard of education and our efficient process of our budget."

The aspiring politician, whose Instagram showcases patriotic posts and words of love for his country and community, has big plans for his school district.

He told the College Fix he intends to use his new position on the board to expand civics education and vocational training opportunities for students in the district.

Seppy's surprising victory is just one of many that occurred this week as a groundswell of new candidates fed up with the status quo won in local school board elections across the country.

Report: ‘Anti-CRT’ candidates are sweeping school boards across the country, even in heavily Democratic areas



Backlash over critical race theory being taught in public school classrooms has become a flashpoint in American politics over the last year — and now it is leading to widespread changes on school boards across the country.

What are the details?

A newly formed political action committee known as the 1776 Project PAC — which is focused on helping elect conservative, "anti-CRT" candidates to public school boards nationwide — won three-fourths of its 58 races across seven states on Tuesday, according to Axios.

The news outlet noted that supported candidates didn't only claim victory in Republican-controlled areas but in heavily Democratic areas, as well.

"Thirteen Pennsylvania school board candidates backed by the group won their races, along with 11 in Colorado, nine in Kansas, four in New Jersey, three in Virginia, and two each in Ohio and Minnesota," Axios reported.

"They're not just winning in Republican areas; several candidates won in solid blue counties: Montgomery County, Pennsylvania; Passaic County, New Jersey; and Johnson County, Kansas," the report added.

As of this morning our candidates lead in 44 of the 58 races we competed in.\n\nWe may have won 75% of the races we competed in!

— 1776 Project Pac (@1776ProjectPac) 1635942528

The PAC's founder, Ryan Girdusky, told Axios: "My PAC is campaigning on behalf of everyday moms and dads who want to have better access to their children's education."

What else?

Those election victories may just be the beginning of an even larger movement. Election-tracking website Ballotpedia noted that school boards of late have seen an "increased level of political activity" extending "beyond recall efforts to school board elections more broadly."

The website identified 88 school districts across the country where race in education or critical race theory, responses to the coronavirus pandemic, and sex education and gender identity in schools stoked significant activism this past election season.

While some groups are supporting specific candidates, others — such as Moms for Liberty — are energizing parents to educate themselves on the issues, to "stand up for parental rights," and hit the polls. The Florida-based organization is no fringe group, either. It operates 145 chapters in 32 states.

Anything else?

The election victories are the apparent result of the groundswell of angry parents gathering at local school boards to protest progressive policies over the last year. That furor has become a movement.

Yet the movement has not only affected local politics. Rather, candidates for statewide offices such as Virginia governor have also successfully campaigned on wresting educational control from the government and giving it back to parents.

Soon enough, issues relating to critical race theory in classrooms may end up influencing national offices.

Barack Obama slapped with reality check after he denounces 'trumped up culture wars,' 'fake outrage'



Former President Barack Obama was slapped with a reality check Saturday after urging Virginia voters to ignore what he called "fake outrage" and "trumped up culture wars" that he claimed are being peddled by "right-wing media."

What did Obama say?

While campaigning for Democrat Terry McAuliffe in Virginia, Obama denounced focusing on cultural issues, instead saying that Americans should be concerned with recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We don't have time to be wasting on these phony trumped up culture wars, this fake outrage that right-wing media peddles to juice their ratings," Obama said.

Former President @BarackObama: "We don't have time to be wasted on these phony trumped-up culture wars, this fake o… https://t.co/k102Jlbu2r

— The Hill (@thehill) 1635024216.0

Obama appeared to be speaking about McAuliffe's opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin, whose campaign platform includes supporting parents to have a voice over decisions made by school boards.

"Instead of stoking anger aimed at school boards and administrators, who are just trying to keep our kids safe, who are just doing their jobs, stoking anger to the point where some of them are actually getting death threats," Obama said. "We should be making it easier for teachers and schools to give our kids the world-class education they deserve, and do to so safely while they are in the classroom."

What was the response?

Obama's comments generated sharp rebuke.

Critics pointed out that children's education is not part of the "trumped up culture war" as Obama claimed, especially considering that McAuliffe has said parents shouldn't have a say in school board decisions.

As many others pointed out, Loudoun County Schools also stands accused of "covering up" two sexual assaults as they pushed controversial LGBT policies.

  • "Sorry, but McAuliffe saying that parents shouldn't be in charge of their children's education and the Loudoun County school board lying to parents about sexual assaults in bathrooms isn't 'trumped up cultural wars,'" Ben Shapiro said.
  • "Let's be clear: THEY are waging the culture war. WE are fighting back.Covering up a sexual assault in school restrooms to push a transgender policy in gov't schools is the definition of waging a culture war," radio host Larry O'Connor said.
  • "Barack Obama is telling parents they have fake outrage over school boards covering up sexual assaults and teaching critical race theory," Rep. Ken Buck (R-Colo.) reacted.
  • "The 'right-wing media' tricked Terry McAuliffe into telling parents they should influence school boards. @GlennYoungkin is surging because he's got answers for Virginia's public education's failures," radio host Hugh Hewitt pointed out.
  • "Two girls were sexually assaulted on school property, and school admin officials publicly lied about their knowledge of it to parents," reporter Susan Crabtree pointed out.
  • "My child's education is not a trumped-up culture war," Michael Needham, chief of staff to Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), fired back.
  • "Here in WA: I was fired for refusing an experimental vaccine, I saw the COVID pts. Vax passes start Monday in Seattle. An elementary school has a gender unicorn on the wall. A high school handed out a sexual survey asking when kids first had anal. But sure, it's Trumped up anger," another person said.
  • "Gaslighting at its finest," one person observed.
  • "Zero self-awareness. Zero accountability," another person said.
  • "Schools cover up sexual assault. That's not trumped up. That's not culture war. That's a dereliction of public duty. The failure to address it is a failure of leadership. Saying otherwise is a deflection," another person said.

Obama is the latest high-profile figure to stump for McAuliffe. President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris have also been campaigning for McAuliffe, which signals the race to become Virginia's next governor is much tighter than Democrats anticipated.

McAuliffe and Youngkin are separated by fewer than three points in an average of recent polling, according to FiveThirtyEight.

Email confirms Loudoun County school board knew about alleged sexual assault on day it happened



The Loudoun County Public Schools board was informed of an alleged sexual assault that took place in a high school bathroom on May 28, 2021, an email from Superintendent Scott Ziegler shows.

The email, which was reported by WTOP-TV, alerted the school board that an incident took place at Stone Bridge High School in which a female student alleged she was sexually assaulted by a male student in the restroom.

The May 28 email reads:

Good Afternoon, Board Members, The purpose of this email is to provide you with information regarding an incident that occurred at Stone Bridge HS. This afternoon a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulted her in the restroom. The LCSO [Sheriff's Office] is investigating the matter. Secondary to the assault investigation, the female student's parent responded to the school and caused a disruption by using threatening and profane language that was overheard by staff and students. Additional law enforcement units responded to the school to assist with the parent. The school's counseling team is providing services for students who witnessed the parent's behavior. The alleged victim is being tended to by LCSO.

According to WTOP-TV, the details of the incident were not disclosed to the school board because the board may be involved in student disciplinary actions, and they are rarely told the specifics of major incidents at schools.

The email demonstrates, however, that the board would have known about the alleged bathroom assault at a June 22 school board meeting, where Ziegler told the public there was no record of any sexual assaults in a bathroom. A proposed policy to accommodate transgender students by letting them use whichever bathroom they wish was the topic of heated debate at the meeting. Parents had raised concerns that letting boys who identify as girls use the girls' restrooms would endanger the safety of their children.

School board member Beth Barts asked the superintendent if there were sexual assaults in restrooms occurring regularly.

"The predator transgender student or person simply does not exist," Ziegler answered at that meeting. "We don't have any record of assaults occurring in our restrooms."

But as the Daily Wire first reported, just three weeks prior a freshman girl said she was sexually assaulted by a boy wearing a skirt in the bathroom. According to an attorney for the girl's father, the suspect has been charged with two counts of forcible sodomy, one count of anal sodomy, and one count of forcible fellatio related to the incident. The same suspect is alleged to have assaulted another girl in a classroom at a different high school earlier this month.

The May 28 victim's father, who was in attendance at the school board meeting, grew visibly angry after the school board would not acknowledge his daughter's alleged assault and was arrested for disorderly conduct.

Last week, Ziegler apologized for making a "misleading" remark, claiming that he thought the question was specifically referring to assaults involving transgender students.

"First, let me say to the families and students involved, my heart aches for you," Ziegler said in an Oct. 15 statement. "And I am sorry that we failed to provide the safe, welcoming and affirming environment that we aspire to provide. We acknowledge and share your pain and we will continue to offer you support to help your families through this trauma."

The victim's family now intends to file a civil lawsuit against the school. Bill Stanley, an attorney representing the family, said in a statement that Ziegler's apology confirmed that the school administration "failed to provide the safe environment" for the victim.

"As evidenced by subsequent events and revelations, Loudoun Public Schools have been failing the parents who entrusted them to provide a safe environment for their children every day," Stanley said. "That trust has (been) irrevocably broken by Loudoun County Public Schools' actions and inactions."

Pennsylvania School Boards Association quits national group over letter calling parents 'domestic terrorists'



The Pennsylvania School Boards Association has voted to quit the National School Boards Association, writing that a recent NSBA letter to the Biden administration that likened protesting parents to "domestic terrorists" was the impetus for its decision.

"The most recent national controversy surrounding a letter to President Biden suggesting that some parents should be considered domestic terrorists was the final straw," the Pennsylvania association wrote in an internal memo.

In late September, the NSBA wrote to President Joe Biden stating that school board members nationwide were "under an immediate threat" from concerned parents and residents opposed to critical race theory, transgender policies, and COVID-19 mask and vaccine mandates. The letter requested federal assistance in response to incidents of violence at raucous school board protests and alleged threats made against some school board members.

The letter cited more than 20 examples of loud protests against school boards in recent months, as irate parents have confronted school officials over school mask mandates, prolonged school closures during the pandemic, pornographic material being taught in K-12 classrooms, "racist" lessons based on critical race theory, and more.

"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," the NSBA told Biden.

In response, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced on Oct. 4 that the Department of Justice is "committed to using its authority and resources" to address alleged threats and violence, drawing fire from critics who said the Biden administration was unfairly targeting concerned parents.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is among those critics. The state association wrote that the NSBA's "misguided approach has made our work and that of many school boards more difficult. It has fomented more disputes and cast partisanship in our work on behalf of school directors."

full statement: https://t.co/XCWGIpmD2h

— Corey A. DeAngelis (@DeAngelisCorey) 1634266932.0

"PSBA abhors the fact that some boards have been met with threats and violence. We are absolutely opposed to such actions. A school board meeting needs to be the model of democracy in action — locally elected officials hearing from the public as local solutions are debated and formulated. ... However, attempting to solve the problems with a call for federal intervention is not the place to begin, nor a model for promoting greater civility and respect for the democratic process," the association wrote.

The PSBA said that among the other reasons to dissolve its ties to the national group are that the NSBA "is not focused on bipartisanship, civility and seeking solutions to the internal problems that have plagued the national organization for so long."

"The PSBA Governing Board has directed PSBA staff to develop additional services and resources to meet the ongoing, evolving needs of our membership. We intend to continue to work closely with other state school boards associations and remain hopeful that following this period of substantial tumult for the NSBA, we will find a new national organization ready and able to serve all its member states effectively," the memo concluded.

The Pennsylvania School Boards Association is a nonprofit association of public school boards in the state, representing more than 4,500 school board members. Founded in 1985, it was the first school boards association established in the United States.