Meltdowns at NJ school board meetings prompt feds to target angry parents

Law enforcement around the country is being given federal support to address increasing threats targeting school board members, teachers and other employees in public schools as the pandemic wears on.

The National School Board Association wrote a letter to President Joe Biden in late September, saying that school board meetings have been disrupted in California, Florida, Georgia, Ohio, New Jersey and other states because of local directives for mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19.

Among its examples, the letter cited an Asbury Park Press report from late August, which said the Wall Township school board postponed the public portion of the Aug. 24 meeting after about 60 attendees refused to wear masks. The public comment meeting was rescheduled for the following week, on Aug. 31.

Manalapan-Englishtown Board of Education also had to eject an attendee, who not only refused to wear a mask but began yelling inflammatory remarks,

“They started talking about concentration camps and comparing (the mask mandate) to Nazis,” a board member was quoted as saying in the APP report. Jewish organizations, including Yad Vashem — The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, have criticized the use of Holocaust imagery in debates about COVID-19 mandates.

In a memorandum on Monday, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said there has been “a disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff who participate in the vital work of running our nation’s public schools.”

To address the rising problem, Garland said the FBI would work with U.S. attorneys and federal, state, local, territorial and tribal authorities in each district to develop strategies against the threats.

The New Jersey School Board Association said it does not have a reliable estimate of how many situations of concern have been reported involving school board confrontations around the state, when asked on Wednesday.

School board meeting meltdowns across U.S.

New York

@sheelbabePeople who ask me why I don't live in the district where I teach & commute 70 miles daily. #SchoolBoardMeeting #HarperValleyPTA #WhyICommute♬ original sound - Sheila Byrne

Florida

@darkwater_officalParents Fight Back👊…#school #schoolboard #maskmandate #vaxmandates #mandate #vax #trump #florida #seminolecounty #usa #america ♬ original sound - Dark Water

Tennessee

@kendraguinn1969Threats at school board meeting in Tennessee. #nomask #covid19 #covid #trump #fypシ #foryoupage #hadenough #schoolboard♬ original sound - kendraguinn1969

Texas

@craydaily #mask #schoolboardmeeting #manstrips #naked #fy #fyp #foryou #comedy #viral #trending #tiktok #tiktokindia #cray #naked #nude #ChewyChattyPets ♬ original sound - user1420415105577

Oklahoma

@faithwilliamssssoh how i love my high school #jenksoklahoma #karensgoingwild #maskmandate #schoolspirit♬ original sound - faith

Pro mask in Florida

@west_world_south More Polk county FL residents plead for mask mandates #covid19 #schoolboardmeetings #schoolboard #careaboutothers ♬ Sad Romance - Instrumental - M Relaxing

(Includes material Copyright 2021 The Associated Press.)