Old Dominion News

Parents, educators and lawmakers are locked in debate over how much say-so parents should have in what their children are learning in the classroom. Conflict between board members and concerned parents is reaching critical levels, in some cases even resulting in arrests, as frustration boils over trending issues such as mask mandates, vaccines and critical race theory.

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland sparked more debate after he issued a memorandum on Oct. 4 calling for a collaboration between the FBI, U.S. Attorney's offices and state/local leaders to discuss strategies in addressing, detecting and mitigating threats and violence against school board members. 

The issue has legislators bickering at the state level. Democratic Virginia gubernatorial candidate Terry McAuliffe recently said in a September debate that he "doesn't think parents should be telling schools what they should teach" in response to the question of what say parents have in a student's education, treatment of transgendered students and selection of library books.

His opponent, Republican Glenn Youngkin, posted on Twitter that he believes "parents should be in charge of their kids' education."

In response to this recent turmoil, the Department of Justice is tasked with solidifying the line between allowing parents to nonviolently express their grievances with their children's school board – even when there is high emotion involved – and protecting those public servants from harassment, bodily harm or threats. 

Garland cited an “increase in harassment, intimidation and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools” the memo to the heads of the FBI and U.S. Attorney’s offices directing them to convene with federal, state, and local law enforcement to discuss how best to deter this “disturbing trend."

“Threats against public servants are not only illegal, they run counter to our nation’s core values,” Garland wrote.

On Oct. 6, Youngkin joined the Guy Benson Show on Fox News, where he dubbed Garland and DoJ's recent actions "absolutely outrageous."

"Virginia parents have just been standing up at school board meetings, that’s what they’ve been doing. They have been expressing their views about their kids' education," Youngkin said.

A recent Loudoun County school board meeting left one man arrested, another ticketed for trespassing and a third person injured after a parent-led protest, where they chanted, sang and waved signs, according to NBC Washington. 

Republicans sitting on the Senate Judiciary Committee responded to Garland’s memo, expressing concerns that the Department of Justice message may appear to signal the policing the speech of parents and concerned citizens.

“We urge you to make very clear to the American public that the DoJ will not interfere with the rights of parents to come before school boards and speak with educators about their concerns, whether regarding coronavirus-related measures, the teaching of critical race theory in schools, sexually explicit books in schools, or any other topic," the GOP letter read. “Furthermore, we urge you to instruct the FBI and the various United States Attorneys to make clear in the meetings discussed above that speech and democratic processes, like those that occur at a local school board meeting, must be respected.”

In the September debate, McAuliffe continued to say that he is "not going to let parents come into schools and actually take books out [of the library/curriculum] and make their own decisions."

The September debate was hosted by NBC Washington, moderated by "Meet the Press" host Chuck Todd and hosted at Northern Virginia Community College.

Youngkin told Benson that Virginia parents have just been standing up for their children – fighting for schools to teach their children how to think, not what to think. He said he's not surprised that McAuliffe has taken the stance that he has.

"The worst thing is now that the parents have stood up and said 'Terry, we're rejecting this whole philosophy,' [McAuliffe] goes and gets his friend Joe Biden to dispatch the Department of Justice and the FBI to try to silence parents in Virginia who are standing up for their children and expressing mass dissatisfaction with a government control of their kids' education," Youngkin said. "And Terry McAuliffe and Joe Biden are trying to intimidate them to be quiet."

Emerson College recently released polling results that showed McAuliffe and Youngkin are in a dead heat under a month away from the November election. Notably, Youngkin leads among Hispanics (55-45 percent) and suburbanites (49-48 percent).

Youngkin told Benson he is confident that he is rightly positioned to win as poll data emerges. 

"Our voters are showing up to vote, and [McAuliffe's] voters aren't," Youngkin said. "Our voters are not just Republicans, it's independents and Democrats all coming to the polls and voting, and we've seen in early voting an enormous sense of momentum in what we're doing and an absolute sense of almost apathy in what Terry McAuliffe is offering."