Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr said this week that he joined a 17-state effort to deter the Biden administration from threatening parents who express their views to school officials on issues regarding their children’s education.
Carr announced this in an emailed statement.
“A bedrock principle in America is our First Amendment right to express ourselves and to petition our government, and at no time is this right more important to defend than when our citizens express disagreement with government policies,” Carr said.
“I will fight any effort by the Biden-Harris Administration to suppress the First Amendment rights of our citizens.”
The state attorneys general stated their concerns in an October 18 letter to U.S. President Joe Biden and U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland. Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita is leading the coalition, according to the press release.
“On October 4, the U.S. Department of Justice issued a memorandum decrying a ‘disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff,’” according to Carr’s statement.
“On that premise, U.S. Attorney General Garland called for the FBI and other federal law enforcement agents to fan out across the United States and monitor activities in the nation’s school districts to suppress what they deem unruly behavior. The Biden administration, however, has provided no convincing evidence of any significant ‘spike’ in threats against school personnel. Instead, these actions by the administration seem designed to chill the lawful dissent of parents who express concerns about their children’s education at local public school board meetings.”
The U.S. Department of Justice memo, the press release went on to say, echoes a National School Board Association (NSBA) letter sent September 29 to the Biden administration that laments the rise of parents pushing back against divisive ideologies, including Critical Race Theory (CRT).
“The NSBA letter raises the specter of local protests rising to the level of ‘domestic terrorism,’” according to Carr’s press release.
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Chris Butler is an investigative journalist at The Georgia Star News and The Star News Network. Follow Chris on Facebook. Email tips to [email protected].
