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It wasn’t long ago when the work of Boards of Education was never scrutinized. The people who served on the boards might have even desired for more parents to “get involved.”

To be honest, I have never sought to be a member of a Board of Education and probably couldn’t name the members who served on any of the boards in the counties in which I have lived. It simply did not interest me and still doesn’t. I will acknowledge that attitude is not good. We should be involved in the education of our children.

In places like Louden County, Virginia, I would guess that the county school board would like a lot less parental participation. Every time that board meets, they can count on dozens, if not hundreds, of activist parents letting the board know that they want a sound education for the children and not any sort of indoctrination.

Parents who monitored their children’s education by video because of the 2020 pandemic saw many lessons being taught that they thought were inappropriate. Instead of the normal subjects like math, science, civics, English, history and the standard teachings that they remembered and preferred, they saw subjects of a political or sexual nature or history that bordered on anti-Americanism.

They took their complaints to the Boards of Education meetings and, at first, tried to be courteous and well mannered. I’m not saying all boards are like this, but many of the confrontations turned testy because the concerned parents felt condescension on the part of the boards. They felt like the board members were determined to do what they wanted to do instead of listening to the genuine concerns of parents. Some of the meetings that we have seen were ugly and angry.

As television is accustomed to doing, it probably showed us the worst of the confrontations, but I don’t doubt that parents were frustrated when they had genuine concerns and the people to whom the concerns were addressed seemed to turn away and not answer.

I read of a letter that the National School Boards Association (NSBA) sent to President Biden asking for his help in taming these parents who are intent on protecting their children’s interests in education. The letter, if it does not actually call the parents “domestic terrorists,” it implies that they are. That’s unfortunate.

President Biden forwarded the letter from the NSBA to his Attorney General Merrick Garland. Garland has “sicced” the FBI on these parents who pose threats to school boards. Perhaps if parents felt their concerns were heard and addressed, there would be more civility.

Meanwhile in Arizona, a senator who is getting in the way of our congress passing a bill that costs too much and, quite frankly, isn’t needed, is harassed by groups of people who even followed her into the restroom. Senator Kyrsten Sinema is holding up the $3.5 trillion dollar Biden Build Back Better Bill (say that quickly 5 times).

There is also Senator Joe Manchin who is doing the same thing, but can’t take his houseboat out on the lake without being harassed by kayakers yelling and screaming at him and his family.
When questioned about these incidents, the president simply shrugs his shoulder, smiles and says, “That’s part of the process.”

So on one hand, parents who are concerned about the education of their children enough to confront school boards are denigrated as “domestic terrorists” by the Department of Justice and FBI. On the other hand there are two senators who are hassled by real domestic terrorists for holding up questionable legislation that the president wants and that’s okay.

One group is under investigation and the other is just “part of the process.” Can anyone say Double Standard?