Did the White House, Justice Department, and NSBA Conspire Against Parents?

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President Obama announcing his nomination for Supreme Court in 2016.

When former President Barrack Obama nominated Merrick Garland for the Supreme Court, he hailed Garland as a brilliant legal mind who would be modest, decent, display integrity, “evenhandedness and excellence.” Current President Biden was right beside him, but history didn’t go their way. After Justice Antonin Scalia passed away suddenly in 2016, Democrats saw a fine opportunity to change the dynamic of the courts. But since it was so close to election time, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republicans made a very risky gamble. They would not allow Garland to go through the confirmation hearing, and the balance of the courts was saved.

Since then, Democrats have furiously referred to Justice Neil Gorsuch’s seat as “stolen.” Many Republicans felt as though they were responsible for saving the country. Given Garland’s recent and blatantly partisan attack on concerned parents, America dodged a massive bullet.

You may have heard about the infamous letter sent by the National School Board Association to the Department of Justice, over concerns of alleged threats to teachers and administrators. Though criminal activity like this should be dealt with by local law enforcement, they asked if policies like the Patriot Act could be used. One of the examples noted at the bottom of the document was from a news report in Loudoun County. A parent was arrested at a school board meeting.

Thanks to extensive reporting by The Daily Wire, we know this parent was a concerned father demanding accountability, after his daughter was sexually assaulted by a boy in the girls’ bathroom. Superintendent Scott Ziegler said, at that very same meeting on June 22, there were no sexual assaults in their bathrooms. But on May 28, Ziegler sent out an email to the school board: “This afternoon a female student alleged that a male student sexually assaulted her in the restroom.”

Scott Smith’s daughter was assaulted, the school board covered it up, and the NSBA made him one of their poster boys for domestic terrorism.

After emails were obtained by Parents Defending Education through public record requests, we now know the entire NSBA did not approve of that letter and “regret and apologize” for it. They said, “there was no justification for the language included.”

On September 29, Viola Garcia, the president of the association, and CEO Chip Slaven, sent the letter to Biden without the board’s approval. After the blowback, some of the directors voiced frustrations. They were asked by their communities if parents were considered “domestic terrorists for showing up to our meetings and expressing their opinions.” Others claimed they wouldn’t have approved because it was too extreme, and they wouldn’t have requested federal help.

On October 4, the Department of Justice issued a memo. “Citing an increase in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school board members, teachers and workers in our nation’s public schools, today Attorney General Merrick B. Garland directed the FBI and U.S. Attorneys’ Offices to meet in the next 30 days with federal, state, Tribal, territorial and local law enforcement leaders to discuss strategies for addressing this disturbing trend.”

When Attorney General Garland was summoned before congress on October 21, Representative Jim Jordan asked, “When did you first review the data showing this so-called ‘disturbing uptick?’” Garland’s response was the NSBA’s letter.

Garland claimed there was no coordination between the DOJ and White House regarding his memo, but the letter itself was coordinated with the White House before it was sent by the NSBA.

Chip Slaven disclosed in an email that he and Garcia had been in contact with the White House for several weeks, and they “requested additional information on some of the specific threats.”

Again, one of those examples was the school board meeting where Scott Smith, whose daughter was sexually assaulted in Loudoun County, was arrested. The same boy who abused his daughter assaulted another girl at a different school.

To recap, a letter coordinated with the White House was sent by the NSBA to President Joe Biden. A few days later, the DOJ announced a task force to tackle this rise in violence, with the letter as evidence. During Garland’s Senate confirmation hearings, Senator Ted Cruz asked Garland if he would keep the DOJ from being weaponized like it was in the days of Obama. He made a commitment to keep the DOJ fair, but we are already seeing a skew.

Whether or not a thread is uncovered tying Biden and Garland together in this conspiracy, it’s inappropriate. Obama never quite got burned in his various scandals, like Fast and Furious or the IRS targeting conservatives. Even the Benghazi blame was mostly shifted to Hillary Clinton. But ideologues know what agenda to push, and if they don’t respect the responsibility of their position and the American people, their bias will lead to oppression. There was no reason for the federal government to get involved in local crimes they never bothered to verify.

Garland’s impartiality has also been called into question since his son-in-law’s education company supports critical race theory, the hot topic of debate at many of these school board meetings. Garland was asked by Rep. Mike Johnson at a hearing if he sought any ethics guidance. He fiercely rejected the necessity of one.