The NSBA president said the organization also worked with DOJ and DHS before sending the letter.
Internal documents released Thursday confirm that the National School Boards Association coordinated with the White House before formally sending a letter to the Biden administration requesting federal intervention to probe and potentially prosecute parents for threatening school administrators.
In an October 12 memo, obtained by the nonprofit Parents Defending Education, NSBA president Viola Garcia stated that the organization had been “actively engaged” with federal departments including the White House, Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security, before sending their letter to the president.
Chip Slaven, NSBA’s interim executive director, wrote in a September 29 email that the letter, which characterized parents as potential “domestic terrorists,” was revised to include details of “specific threats” at White House staff’s urging. As a result, the NSBA letter cited 24 local news outlet items detailing “threats” parents leveled against school board members, the vast majority of which did not constitute criminal threats.
In response to the letter, which the NSBA has since apologized for, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a Department of Justice order mobilizing the FBI to coordinate with federal law enforcement to target parents deemed to be engaging in “threatening” behavior against school board members.
“In talks over the last several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring,” Slaven said in the email.
During a September 14 meeting, the executive directors of the group’s state chapters were notified that the NSBA had spoken with the White House about the letter that same day, Garcia claims in her memo. While the state chapters appear to have been given some advanced warning that a letter requesting federal intervention would be sent, they do not appear to have been given any specifics regarding the harsh language that would be used.
In addition to the state chapters being left in the dark, some members of the board of directors of the NSBA say they were not consulted or involved in the decision either, correspondence shows. Twenty-four NSBA state chapters distanced themselves from the letter amidst widespread condemnation from parents, and at least 12 state groups have formally disaffiliated from the parent organization.
Nicole Neily, president of Parents Defending Education, believes that Slaven and Garcia acted unilaterally and without the board’s consent in sending President Biden the letter.
“The NSBA board was not briefed. This was totally rogue,” she said.
In an October 11 email, Andrea Messina, executive director of the Florida state school board association, told Beverly Slough, a member of the NSBA board of directors, that she did not recall Slaven ever mentioning any communication with the White House during the September 14 meeting.
Referring to the headquarters’ plea for federal assistance to investigate parents, Messina said: “I do not recall his asking them for help at all and, like you, believe that even if I had missed it one of my colleagues would’ve picked up on it.”
In her reply, Slough affirmed that the board of directors were not clued in to the White House–NSBA collaboration. “As expected. I just cannot believe this part at all. Inconceivable that none of you would have referenced such a communication in all the back and forth,” she said.
In response to Garcia’s explanatory October memo, Pam Doyle, another member of the board of directors, pressed her on why the members of the board were left out of the loop.
“The members questioned why they were not consulted on the contents of the letter as well as the board’s involvement, or lack thereof. If I read the above paragraphs correctly, the origin of the letter began September 14th with a meeting with the White House staff, but fails to specify who met with the White House staff,” Doyle says.
Speaking on behalf of the board, Doyle also demanded to know which specific individual was behind the letter to the Biden administration and under what authority that individual sent it.
“It goes further to say ‘NSBA’ was preparing a letter to send to the President, failing once again to state the person that was preparing the letter, only an entity – NSBA.
The members asked specifically who wrote the letter, by what authority the letter was written, and who or how many states asked for federal intervention. This letter fails to adequately answer the specific questions about the lack of input from the members and Board in the letter to the President,” Doyle concludes.