School boards appear to be defending their overreach in transgender bathroom policies, mask mandates and use of Critical Race Theory by claiming to be victims of viable threats, despite local and federal law enforcement finding no credible danger from investigations to date.
A Reuters investigation found 220 examples of harassment, hostility and intimidation in a sample of 33 board members across school districts in 15 states. “School board members across the United States have endured a rash of terroristic threats and hostile messages ignited by roiling controversies,” that were “fueled by anger over culture-war issues,” wrote the authors, mirroring Attorney General Merrick Garland’s labeling of parents as domestic terrorists.
Roughly half of all “terroristic threats” identified by the outlet were sent to one individual, the former chair of the Loudoun County, Virginia, school board. A majority of those threats came after she and her colleagues allegedly attempted to cover up at least two known rapes against female children by a male student wearing a skirt, who was permitted to use the female bathroom.
Following the two separate sexual assaults by the male student, Loudoun County’s school board members proposed a transgender bathroom policy that would continue allowing male students into female bathrooms. Students in the county staged a walk-out protest when the board proposed the policy, stating that “Loudoun County Protects Rapists.”
This father from Loudon County, Virginia has had enough with school boards and teachers unions keeping children out of school against the advice of public health officialspic.twitter.com/EEGLfPB2hA
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) January 27, 2021
Reuters reported that conservatives “seized” the violent sexual assaults of two young children as a reason to argue that transgender bathroom policies are dangerous. (RELATED: Judge Finds Skirt-Wearing Teen Boy Guilty Of Sexually Assaulting Female Classmate In Loudoun County School Bathroom)
Other examples of “harassment” against school board members included one man from Dublin, Ohio, who said he felt worried every time he “noticed an unfamiliar car parked outside his home” after receiving the following message: “All Americans know the schools have become Indoctrination Centers for Marxism… WE ARE COMING AFTER ALL OF YOU STINKING TRAITORS OF AMERICA!”
“It’s easily been the most difficult year-and-a-half of my life,” the school board member allegedly told Reuters, who then claimed the note was the “worst example of the hostile messages district officials have endured.”
Board members from Florida and Pennsylvania have contacted local law enforcement and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate the threats. “I certainly hope law enforcement and our legislators are paying much closer attention to what seems to be an increasingly serious threat,” said one Pennsylvania board member, echoing statements made by other board members.
One woman from Luray, Virginia, was charged for saying she would “bring every single gun loaded and ready” to school. The woman immediately apologized and said she spoke figuratively and never meant to bring a gun to the school, suggesting that the level of threats experienced by school boards is largely talk.
To date, federal and local law enforcement have not found anything else from ongoing investigations that led to charges being filed, or anything that constituted a credible threat against the school board members or officials.
Claiming to have received death threats and other forms of harassment appears to be a popular strategy for left-leaning individuals. In 2016, a slew of students, professors, activists and everyday people carried out elaborate hate crimes against themselves and were ultimately outed for the behavior. Disgraced actor Jussie Smollett was found guilty in December 2021 of faking a hate crime against himself. Bubba Wallace similarly claimed he found a noose in his garage, which was investigated by the FBI and subsequently debunked by the agency.