National School Boards Association stumbles into politics and is blasted apart

A new executive director of the National School Boards Association (NSBA) is working to save the organization, lobbying individual states to reconsider, but so far he has not persuaded any of them to change their minds.“I hope they’ll give us a chance,” John Heim, the newly installed executive director, said in an interview. The letter shifted the focus away from some frightening threats and decidedly aggressive behavior to a defiant defense of free speech and local control.Even some supporters of the NSBA said the letter went too far and put them in an uncomfortable position.“There has been some damage done,” said Jim Green, executive director of the Oregon School Boards Association. “Be careful, your mommy hurts little kids!” an activist yelled at her daughter.Death threats, online abuse, police protection: School board members face dark new realityIn September, the NSBA told the White House it was concerned about violence and threats to school board members, Chip Slaven, who was the interim executive director at the time, said in an interview. 29, the NSBA sent Biden its six-page letter requesting intervention by federal law enforcement agencies “to deal with the growing number of threats of violence and acts of intimidation occurring across the nation.” It pointed to a raft of incidents in recent months, though not all of them were violent.“As these acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials have increased, the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes,” said the letter, which was signed by Slaven and association president Viola M. In another case, he said, someone filmed himself on the way to a school with a pair of zip-tie handcuffs, prepared to arrest a principal.“These are not acts of concerned parents, nor should they be dismissed as just one off situations,” he wrote.The combination of the letter and the Justice Department directive prompted an explosive reaction among conservative lawmakers and media outlets, feeding preexisting complaints that Democrats, school boards and their allies wanted to silence voices of parents who objected to their policies.A week later, John Halkias, a school board member from Plain Local Schools in Ohio, wrote colleagues that the letter had been used in legislative debate over a school voucher bill. A NSBA spokesperson declined to comment on Slaven’s status.His allies say the NSBA and its affiliates allowed conservative activists who oppose public schools to misconstrue the letter as an attack on parents in an effort to silence a strong national voice.“This letter was totally distorted and cherry-picked by Fox [News] and other media,” said Wilson, who was forced to leave the NSBA board when Ohio withdrew from the association.