The National School Boards Association is a federation of state associations of school boards across the United States. Almost all school boards across the country are dues-paying members.
Some school boards are disconnecting from the mothership, after the national group inferred that activist parents are domestic terrorists and that they need protection from the federal government against protesting parents. The Pennsylvania School Board Association is the most well-know, after it voted unanimously to leave the national association.
Anchorage School District Board member Dave Donley wants the Anchorage board to at least condemn the actions of the National School Board Association. In a resolution to be introduced Tuesday night at the 5 pm regularly scheduled school board meeting, the lone conservative on the Anchorage School Board says enough is enough.
Donley says parents nationwide have increasingly protested public school policies and practices, but the vast majority of protests have been an exercise of free speech at public school board meetings.
The move by the Biden Administration’s Department of Justice to label protesters at public meetings “terrorists” concerns Donley, who says “the legal conducting of local school board meetings is a local matter and should not be interfered with by the federal government.”
On Sept. 29, the National School Board Association, citing the Patriot Act, made public a letter demanding Biden take federal action against parents.
“The justification for federal action included that parents were ‘posting watchlists against school boards and spreading misinformation (sic) that boards are adopting critical race theory curriculum and working to maintain online learning by haphazardly attributing it to COVID-19,” Donley’s resolution states.
The national group’s letter from NSBA to Biden cited 24 incidents around the country that were tantamount to domestic terrorism or hate crimes. But, Donley points out in his resolution, “16 consisted entirely of merely verbal exchanges between parents and school board members in which there was never a threat of physical violence.” He believes local school boards can provide their own security, and that the FBI is not an appropriate tool.
On Oct. 4, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum that appeared to many as a threat to parents over their right to protest.
“While spirited debate about policy matters is protected under our Constitution, that protection does not extend to threats of violence or efforts to intimidate individuals based on their views … The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate. In the coming days, the Department will announce a series of measures designed to address the rise in criminal conduct directed toward school personnel.”
Donley says that the short timeline between the National School Board letter to the president and the action of the top law officer in the country indicates that there was coordination.
He says the normal process for involving the Department of Justice would have taken much longer and required more extensive review. He said the process has been corrupted due to apparent coordination with a single group.
Donley says mainstream education and lobby groups that support the Biden Administration, including the National Education Association, “have combined to oppress, threaten, and intimidate parents to chill and prevent them from exercising the rights or privileges secured by the Constitution.”
His resolution proposes the Anchorage School Board condemns in the strongest terms:
1. Any violence or threats of violence against any public official in relation to their official actions and;
2. Any action by the Federal Government to usurp the appropriate enforcement of the law by local government officials and;
3. The actions of the National School Boards Association in sending their September 29, 2021, letter to the Attorney General and;
4. The actions of the U.S. Attorney General in issuing his October 4, 2021, memorandum which fails to clearly state that the Department of Justice will not use federal law enforcement action to stifle free speech by political opponents of the Biden Administration.
Donley is not likely to get his resolution passed by the hard-left Anchorage School Board. In recent meetings, Board Chair Margo Bellamy has repeatedly distorted Roberts Rules of Order to prevent Donley from offering comments during board meetings. Many members of the public concerned about protecting Anchorage residents have had their focused turned to the dramatic events at the Anchorage Assembly, where another group of left-leaning lawmakers have passed an ordinance mandating compulsory mask wearing in the state’s largest city. The Assembly meetings have been carried over to the same timeframes as the Anchorage School Board meetings, drawing away the usual crowd of objectors to the increasingly left-leaning policies, as well as the forced masking of children.
Donley is a former state senator and state representative, and is now a deputy commissioner for the state Department of Administration. He is a lawyer who from 2003 to 2008 served as chief of adjudication and hearing officer for the State of Alaska. He was commissioned in the Alaska State Defense Force as a state military officer in 2008, rising to the rank of colonel in 2019.
But he is the only member of the school board who has bucked the policy of masking children in schools in Anchorage, and he has spoken openly and critically about the push for Critical Race Theory curriculum in Anchorage classrooms and in the continuing education materials for educators.
Read the National Association of School Board’s letter to President Joe Biden:
Sad to say, good luck with that.
School boards are a hot topic of action and politics right now. So glad we have Dave to speak up for sanity and rights of free people. We have plenty of insane tyrants trying to otherwise run our school boards. Thanks, Dave.
Donley has enough credentials to count as eight votes on the school board. Rather than the lone voice in the Commie wilderness, he should be the tie breaker.
Its funny, “mostly peaceful” protesters have burned and looted our some of our cities for over a year now. Nothing done and they’re considered heroes. Some parents gather to voice concern over their children’s education and they’re labeled terrorists. Go figure.
Yes I totally agree. How stupid can we look to the world. We are the laughing stock of the world. The non informed voters sure don’t help because of all the free stuff.
What cities, when, where? If you’re talking about Seattle or Portland, do your research.
Our best hope for the future is that our children, who are not our personal property, are given the tools to learn and evaluate and solve problems effectively so we can advance into the future on a solid foundation of rational thought. It just might save our lives and our society.
Yes Seattle , Portland, Minneapolis, Washington DC , St Louis, Baltimore and others
To all my fellow Alaskans:
Do not give up your voice to any man or woman.
The right to the freedom of speech shall not be abridged.
This is nothing more than a federal power grab.
Department of Education has 0 constitutional authority to exist.
The real terrorists are the elected officials who have been bought and paid for by the globalists.
Remove the children from the Anchorage School District now. It no longer serves to educate only to indoctrinate ideals of hatred and death.
Repent now School Board members. You’re all going to jail for crimes against humanity under the Nuremberg Code.
Yes! But how do you fight a majority communist school board? Vote? Good luck with that.
Too much voter apathy on the right.
I noted in the last school board election that the union supported candidates usually won.
The democrats depend on union support to elect candidates in all levels of government.
The unions depend on democrats for pro-union legislation.
So, the school board is going to support democrats agenda over parents and tax payers.
Not quite right. The so-called commie, or socialist, unions are collections of workers who are trying to prevent the controlling unit, which is the governmental organization that regulates them, such as the school board or the city council or the United States Congress, from dictating what they have been educated to do, such as teach or practice medicine or provide law enforcement, from submitting to the powers that wish to determine whether they, the controlling unit, will profit or not.
In other words, follow the money. In other words, money talks. If you want to be a vassal of the rich, you are basking under the sun of one of the richest basker we have seen in American politics, who will remain unnamed.
Choose your battles carefully. Your future and your life and the lives of your children depend upon it.
Local protection should be more than adequate should it be warranted. We don’t want more instances like the Homer break in and arrest fiasco by the FBI happening in Alaska for any reason!!
Designating parents as terrorists for complaining about the poor quality of K-12 is the scariest thing I’ve heard so far.
How about the ones who want to hijack the meetings by ranting an raving? Scary? Not scary?
Not terrorism.
I tried to watch the live stream on YouTube, which was available and streaming but as soon as 5pm came the live stream stopped.
Any idea what that’s about?
Attorney General Treg Taylor
I urge you to sign your name on this open letter, albeit late, and to support the Constitutional rights of all Alaskans.
“https://law.georgia.gov/document/document/bidendojparent-speech-school-board-mtg-finalpdf/download”
Thank you
The Governor should urge all Alaska School Boards to drop their memberships in the National School Board Association. Why should local school boards give up their independence to a union controlled Association which has an agenda that is in many ways against the best intentions of local education goals.
What exactly are the best intentions of local education (sic) goals? Who gets to determine them, and why? What is the goal of public education? How is the NSBA undermining local education goals? What, in your opinion, are the goals of local education, and why do you believe they should be adopted by local schools?
So many question. So few answers.
And when did the thought police start calling “government schools” , “public schools”??
You, your readers, and too many others are deliberately misreading what the Board and AG Garland have said. The FBI is requested to follow the nastiness of those who threaten or assault teachers and administrators.
So if someone threatens to vote them out of office I guess in your eyes that is terrorism?
They have been called public schools for decades and more. Don’t be a fool.
Comments are closed.