“The reality is, the blame-and-shame game isn’t going to get us anywhere.”

– Myra Christopher

The Associated Press reported that a group representing school board members around the country asked President Joe Biden on Thursday for federal assistance to investigate and stop threats made over policies including mask mandates, likening the vitriol to a form of domestic terrorism.

The request by the National School Boards Association demonstrates the level of unruliness that has engulfed local education meetings across the country during the pandemic, with board members regularly confronted and threatened by angry protesters.

School board members are largely unpaid volunteers, parents and former educators who step forward to shape school policy, choose a superintendent and review the budget, but they have been frightened at how their jobs have suddenly become a culture war battleground. The climate has led a growing number to resign or decide against seeking reelection.

“Whatever you feel about masks, it should not reach this level of rhetoric,” NSBA Interim Executive Director Chip Slaven told the AP.

White House press secretary Jen Psaki said responsibility for protecting school boards falls largely to local law enforcement but “we’re continuing to explore if more can be done from across the administration.”

“Obviously these threats to school board members is horrible. They’re doing their jobs,” she said during a press briefing.

The letter documents more than 20 instances of threats, harassment, disruption, and acts of intimidation in California, Florida, Georgia, New Jersey, Ohio and other states. It cites the September arrest of an Illinois man for aggravated battery and disorderly conduct for allegedly striking a school official at a meeting. In Michigan, a meeting was disrupted when a man performed a Nazi salute to protest masking.

“We are coming after you,” a letter mailed to an Ohio school board member said, according to the group. “You are forcing them to wear masks — for no reason in this world other than control. And for that you will pay dearly.”

We have seen instances within our local community of angry calls and messages being sent to their children’s schools once the mask mandate was implemented for kids in sixth grade or younger, and we find it completely asinine that this even needs to be said — but, the school board, as well as school staff, are doing what is recommended by the county health agencies. This isn’t a personal vendetta they are carrying out against all anti-maskers, and to believe anything else is beyond childish. So before picking up the phone to berate your school principal or superintendent, think twice. These people are simply following the guidelines that were given to them in an effort to curb the spread of this virus.