Across the nation, individuals and groups with specific political agendas are focusing their energry on local school boards as easy political targets. Driven by “culture wars” and an increasingly politicized landscape – where even the most innocuous of decisions can be subject to partisan interpretation and bickering – boards of education are being dragged into debates they never intended to engage in. And, in some cases, those debates can lead to threats of violence.
A Reuters investigation found more than 220 examples of school board members and other school officials being threatened with violence and death, for themselves or their family members, over issues related to the teaching of racial justice and the struggle for equal rights, accommodations for LGBTQ youth, and mask mandates, among other issues.
The Reuters investigation further found that, while school controversies are usually local, many of the threats came from people outside of the district or even outside of the state. While local parents may have questions or concerns about these issues, many of the problems appear to be stirred up by those from outside the districts.
And while Carter County has thankfully avoided most of these controversies, with only mask mandates and other COVID restrictions drawing significant questions and concern, they aren’t immune to the problems that could come with outside agitators looking to use the board to push some other national agenda.
Most of those asking for an easing of mask restrictions at Monday night’s school board meeting identified themselves as educators and parents of Carter County students. They raised what most would recognize as legitimate concerns about the psychological and social impacts of masking, and masking anxiety, on students.
They also raised important questions about inconsistent application of the rules, both within school buildings and during extracurricular activities.
These parents have questions they deserve to ask the board. They have concerns they are entitled to voice.
Most importantly, they have children they love in the district. Children they want to keep safe and healthy. Children they want to see happy and thriving.
They should be able to have these conversations with their school board without those conversations being hijacked.
But that may not be possible. There have already been efforts to influence the board by those who do not have children in the district. At a previous school board meeting a speaker who identified herself as a representative of a statewide partisan group, who drove in for the meeting from a neighboring county, took time during the public comment period to admonish the board for adhering to mask mandates and following recommendations from the state and county departments of health.
That individual was not discrete, either, in expressing her disappointment that she wasn’t able to bring more people to Carter County, to attempt to influence a school district where they did not have children and did not pay taxes.
While they are free to have their opinions, and to be upset at what they see happening in communities around them, they do not have children in the Carter County school system. They do not pay taxes in Carter County. They are not part of this community. And the people of Carter County, even those who may find some common ground with them, will not benefit from allowing them to hijack the process.
So far the people of Carter County have, for the most part, comported themselves with dignity. They have expressed themselves to the board without resorting to threats or insults. They’ve treated one another as friends and neighbors because that’s what they are.
It’s our sincere hope that they work to keep it that way, and keep the outsiders who want to come in and stir trouble there on the outside where they belong.
There is plenty of room for discussion, debate, and even disagreement. But what Carter County doesn’t need are people with ulterior motives bringing their battles into our communities. The board of education should be about what is best for the students, not what’s best for those pushing other partisan agendas.
