School board org wanted Biden to send National Guard to districts
May 23, 2022
"The National School Boards Association planned to ask the Biden administration to deploy the Army National Guard and military police to school districts beset by parent protests over policies including mandatory masking and the teaching of critical race theory, an internal review has found.
The stunning request was included in a draft letter to the president from September of last year, but was ultimately removed from the final version by the NSBA’s then-CEO Chip Slaven, according to a report from Milwaukee-based law firm Michael Best & Friedrich LLP.
The letter that was ultimately sent, on Sept. 29, was signed by Slaven and then-president Viola Garcia and argued that verbal confrontations and other incidents at local school board meetings across the US constituted “acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials.”
“[T]he classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” read the letter, which went on to ask the administration to “examine appropriate enforceable actions” under a raft of legislation — including the post-9/11 Patriot Act.
The letter, which precipitated an Oct. 4 order by Attorney General Merrick Garland that the FBI investigate complaints of threats against school officials from parents, caused an immediate backlash from parents and Republicans in Congress.
But the original letter — drafted Sept. 17 by Deborah Rigsby, the NSBA official in charge of lobbying and federal legislation — contained an even more egregious request.
“[W]e ask that the Army National Guard and its Military Police be deployed to certain school districts and related events where students and school personnel have been subjected to acts and threats of violence,” the letter read.
The line was too extreme even for Slaven, who expressed his concern in an edited draft dated Sept. 22.
“I went back and forth on this one,” he wrote, according to the report. “I think we should leave it out for now. I am concerned it could be seen as us asking for too much of a federal intervention. However, if things start to get bad, we can revisit.”
Rigsby argued for the language to stay in, saying in a note attached to the draft: “If a district and its officials have received imminent threats and have canceled contracts with local police/sheriff departments — and is experiencing threats, protests and related disruptions and also any changes in community standard(s) — perhaps the National Guard is needed … especially if a governor will not intervene with state law enforcement.
“We are already seeing punitive actions from governors over masks, thereby jeopardizing lives,” Rigsby added.
"It was later revealed that the White House “actively engaged” with the organization before the letter was even sent — which the Michael Best report released Friday confirmed."
“[E]vidence indicates that White House officials discussed the existence of the Letter, its requests, and the contents of the letter with Department of Justice officials more than a week before the Letter was finalized and sent to President Biden,” the report reads.
Slaven provided the White House with an advance summary of the letter and its contents on Sept. 21 — three days before the National Guard request was removed.
"The document added that at least one White House adviser, Mary Wall, used the advance information from Slaven to “include in discussions” with “other [White House] offices” as well as the Department of Justice before the letter was finalized."
Sauce/moar: https://nypost.com/2022/05/23/school-board-org-wanted-biden-to-send-national-guard-to-districts-report/