White House influences probe into parents' school board protests, nonprofit says

WASHINGTON (TND) — It has been a year since the National School Board Association (NSBA) sent a letter to President Joe Biden asking law enforcement to be deployed against parents who were speaking out at their local school board meetings.

The NSBA would later apologize for the letter comparing parents protesting local school policies as acts of domestic terrorism. More than 20 state school board associations even moved to distance themselves from the NSBA following the letter's release.

The letter reads, in part, "On behalf of NSBA, we regret and apologize for the letter. There was no justification for some of the language included in the letter. We should have had a better process in place to allow for consultation on a communication of this significance. We apologize also for the strain and stress this situation has caused you and your organizations."

U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's Justice Department ordered the FBI to investigate who was protesting at the 2021 meetings.

Nicole Neilly, president of Parents Defending Education, joined The National Desk Tuesday to discuss the fallout since the letter and a subsequent apology was released.

Neilly said her grassroots nonprofit organized a coalition letter to NSBA, "basically saying, how dare you?" It was signed by 20 other parent organizations. Five days later, Neilly said the Justice Department released its memo "which in Washington is lightning speed." Neilly said her organization thought there had to be something going on behind the scenes, so they filed a public records request and learned "a very small group" knew what was happening.

Most of the board members did not know. They were unhappy. And it was actually done at the behest of the administration. So, there was coordination behind the scenes with the White House," Neilly said.

For Neilly's full interview with The National Desk's Jan Jeffcoat, watch the video above.