The situation for school boards is so serious, the National School Board Association is asking for federal protection, CNN reports this morning.
"There are covid concerns in school districts across the country are now leading to dangerous situations for school board members. They're worried for their own safety after an increasing number of threats like these," Brianna Keilar said.
She played some clips of threats from anti-mask, anti-vax nut jobs rabidly accusing school board members of "child abuse" and "crimes against humanity."
"The National School Board Association is asking the White House and the Education Department to help ensure the security of its members. And the group's president Viola Garcia is joining us to talk about all on of this. Thanks for being with us this morning. You sent a letter to President Biden because you say you are under immediate threat, for federal enforcement and other assistance to deal with some of what we just saw. Tell us what exactly you think your members need."
"Well, we need support. We need reinforcement of the support that the community can give us," Garcia said.
"But more importantly, these are real threats, Brianna, that you just saw -- that we all just saw. And they're occurring with greater frequency. So our letter to the White House really is indicative of the seriousness of the situation for school board members, but more especially for students in our public schools."
Garcia listed all of the things the school board members have done to get students back in school, but are still faced with threats in their own community.
"I don't know the number of incidents perhaps in grocery stores, but the greatest number and the biggest concern we have are the threats of violence, the coordinated efforts that we seem to see because of the similarities across the state lines, and so it gives us pause, it gives us great pause because not only are we charged at the school board level, not just for the academic viability of our students, but we also are charged with the safety and security not only of the students, but of the staff, and the community members that come in and out of our buildings. And so this is a concern."
