Parents’ eyes have been opened to the blatant, one-sided partisanship of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) after it coordinated a letter with the Biden administration to send the FBI after dissenting parents.
Now, news broke that the NSBA planned to ask the Biden administration to deploy the U.S. Army National Guard and military police to school districts where parent-led protests occurred. The New York Post noted that the deployment request was in draft form of the NSBA letter to President Joe Biden on September 17, 2021, but it was ultimately removed by the time the final version of the letter was sent on September 29.
Although the final letter sent to Biden was controversial in itself, with references to using the Patriot Act to monitor American parents and civilians over school board protests, the draft version could be considered more controversial, if not illegal.
The draft version, penned by NSBA lobbying and federal affairs official Deborah Rigsby, asked that the National Guard and 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.”
Former NSBA CEO Chip Slaven disagreed with the deployment request and wrote in an email on September 22, “I went back and forth on this one.” Slaven added, “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.”
But Slaven’s feedback was met with pushback from Rigsby, who said, “[P]erhaps the National Guard is needed … especially if a governor will not intervene with state law enforcement.” She claimed, “We are already seeing punitive actions from governors over masks, thereby jeopardizing lives.”
Slaven did not budge on his objections and responded on September 24, noting the bad optics of Rigsby’s language, “I’ve reviewed this section again and think it will be seen as a federal intervention into local and state issues. School districts that have this issue should be reaching out to their Governor first who can deploy State Police.”
Slaven continued, “I also think this is not a widespread problem… If we leave this in it will garner a lot of attention away from the broader context.”
Interestingly enough, the NSBA disavowed the final letter that was sent to the Biden administration after public outcry and criticism. Yet its disavowal did not persuade the FBI, led by Attorney General Merrick Garland, to rescind his October 4 memorandum to have the FBI investigate threats made against school board members.
It was also later revealed that the NSBA was coordinating the letter with the Biden administration at least a week before letter was drafted.
Slaven has since complained that he was hung out to dry after the NSBA took heat for the letter, though conservatives contend that his active involvement in writing the controversial letter speaks for itself. For example, Slavin sent the Biden White House an advance copy of the letter.
In short, the NSBA outed itself as a partisan, Democratic Party apparatus despite its public statements to the contrary and its goal was to silence parents by intimidation from the FBI or deploying the National Guard to school districts.
