The DOJ's New Report Exposes How the NSBA Went After Parents — What's Next
I was a school board member and parent when the Biden administration weaponized federal law enforcement against parents.
In 2021, I was fighting against the teachers’ union to keep schools open for in-person learning and defending myself against attacks from my own school board association. I didn’t know it then, but the National School Boards Association (NSBA) was conspiring with the Biden Justice Department to target people like me for opposing ideologies we believed were harmful to children.
I was a conservative on a far-left majority school board when COVID shut down schools nationwide. Suddenly, parents got a front-row seat to their children’s public-school classrooms, and many were alarmed by what they saw. I was one of them, both as a board member and the mother of two students in my district. I refused to stay silent and joined other parents to demand change.
I was astonished to learn the NSBA, an organization I was a member of due to our school board’s affiliate membership in the Virginia School Boards Association (VSBA), called for the federal government to treat parents as domestic terrorists.
Thankfully, the Trump administration didn’t forget about how the Biden administration weaponized the government against citizens for simply exercising their First Amendment rights to free speech. The Justice Department has just exposed what happened during those Biden years, with its release of The 2026 Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools.
What’s In the Report?
- On October 4, 2021, Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memo directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to investigate complaints against parents speaking at school board meetings.
- Despite emails from Justice Department and FBI staff indicating the issues complained about by the NSBA were protected speech, Garland issued the memo anyway.
- The FBI conducted 25 investigations called “Guardian assessments,” including one complaint because a parent belonged to a “right-wing mom’s group” and because she owned a gun.
- Mary Wall, a Biden administration senior advisor, “had advance knowledge of the planned [NSBA] Letter and its specific contents and interacted with Mr. Slaven [NSBA CEO and Executive Director] regarding the Letter during its drafting.”
- In a letter to Wall, without any evidence, Slaven said, “I would not be surprised if there are intentional social media campaigns from foreign powers or other bad operators also popping up like what happened during the 2016 election.”
- Slaven asked the federal government to invoke the PATRIOT ACT related to domestic terrorism.
- Biden personally called the NSBA, thanking them for the letter.
- Slaven compared angry parents at school board meetings to the circumstances of September 11, 2001.
- The report details how Slaven was concerned about public views on masking, “COVID deniers,” and opposition to Critical Race Theory.
What’s Next?
The completion of the Justice Department's ongoing review of the files of those investigated under the Garland memo to determine whether their constitutional rights were violated, and if so, the issuance of a formal apology. The Office of Justice Programs will also provide “resources and training to schoolteachers and staff about the First Amendment rights of parents and the rights of parents to direct and guide the upbringing and education of their children.”
The NSBA and its state subsidiaries are tax-exempt non-profits. The NSBA’s mission is “To equip school board members with resources to advocate for each student in each community, in partnership with our members.”
When I was on the school board in Virginia, I never chose to be a part of this system. My board enrolled us in the VSBA and, with it, the NSBA. I declined to attend VSBA trainings and conferences because I believed they reflected a far-left worldview that didn’t represent me or my constituents.
Instead, I joined other school board members across the state to launch the School Board Member Alliance (SBMA), a governance organization built on transparency and respect for parents. SBMA was the first of its kind in the state. The VSBA had never faced competition, but after the NSBA’s weaponization against parents, an alternative was necessary.
I was never afraid of parents showing up to school board meetings. I was afraid of the weaponization of our government. The DOJ has confirmed that’s what happened and is taking steps to rectify the damage. The question is whether we'll make sure it never happens again.
