PIERS MORGAN: President Biden's attempt to criminalize complaining parents is a shameful attempt to silence dissent that's more worthy of North Korea than the supposed land of the free
'Children are the world's most valuable resource,' said President John F. Kennedy, 'and its best hope for the future.'
He was absolutely right.
A society is only as good as the children it nurtures, educates and prepares for adulthood.
A society is also only as good as the protection it affords children.
And the most important people at the heart of all this childcare are parents.
I've got no time for mothers and fathers who don't care about their kids.
For me, they're the lowest of the low.
If you don't want to care for your children, then don't have them.
But conversely, I have all the time in the world for parents who DO care about their kids – passionately, ferociously, unconditionally.
Above all, I will defend to the last drop of my blood the right of any parent to want to protect their child.
In the end, isn't that the overriding job of a parent – to keep their children from harm's way until they'd old enough to look after themselves?
That doesn't mean I will always agree with what a parent wants for their child.
In fact, many times I may vehemently disagree.
But I will always support their right to have an opinion on what is best for their child because nobody knows their own child better than a caring parent.
And the First Amendment of the US Constitution permits parents to express those opinions as vigorously as they want.
Yet in a stunning, and very sinister move, President Biden has apparently decided that they don't.
The Department of Justice has issued a directive that the FBI will now investigate parents after a 'disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence' against school staff and administrators. Asra Nomani, a mom and the vice president of investigations and strategy at Parents Defending Education (PDE), tweeted: 'This is what a domestic terrorist looks like? You are criminalizing parenting, and you owe the people of America a swift apology'
On September 29 the National Association of School Boards (NSB) sent a letter to President Joe Biden claiming that 'America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat' due to 'attacks...for approving policies for masks'. In it the NASB likened parents' objections to woke school boards to 'a form of domestic terrorism'
The Department of Justice has issued a directive that the FBI will now investigate parents after a 'disturbing spike in harassment, intimidation, and threats of violence' against school staff and administrators.
This comes in response to a letter to President Biden last week from the National Association of School Boards (NASB) asserting that 'America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat' due to 'attacks...for approving policies for masks'.
The letter likened parents' objections to 'a form of domestic terrorism' and fuelled instant outrage.
Asra Nomani, a mom and the vice president of investigations and strategy at Parents Defending Education (PDE), tweeted:
'This is what a domestic terrorist looks like? You are criminalizing parenting, and you owe the people of America a swift apology.'
It was a view shared by many.
Now, let me be clear: I would never defend any violence or threat of violence against a teacher or school administrator, and there have undeniably been some ugly scenes at schools in recent weeks between angry parents and school boards over issues like covid masks, the teaching of critical race theory, and issues relating to transgenderism like access to bathrooms.
But there is a massive difference between violence and a parent expressing robust, even furious concern about a school policy.
And there are many US public school policies right now which demand parental attention and concern.
Let's take covid.
My nine-year-old daughter caught the virus a few weeks ago and had what she described as a 'bad cold' for two days before bouncing back to normal.
That, thankfully, appears to be the experience that most young kids have with covid and the death toll for children is incredibly low.
Does that justify masking them all day in their classrooms with all the possible side effects that might have on their physical and mental health?
The directive comes in response to a letter to President Biden last week from the National Association of School Boards (NASB) asserting that 'America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat' due to 'attacks...for approving policies for masks'
There seems to have been a very different approach to the civil unrest we saw last summer in the wake of George Floyd's horrific killing, which led to appalling arson, looting and destruction of property. I don't remember the DoJ issuing directives then that such behaviour was 'domestic terrorism.' So, Attorney-General Merrick Garland's announcement strikes me as massive overreach by a Biden administration determined to stamp down on dissent
AG Merrick Garland issued this memo yesterday warning parents that they will face prosecution for protesting against schools and teachers in a way the government deems to be threatening
I think the jury is very definitely out on that, and it's certainly something that all parents should be allowed to debate and have a view about, not least because so much is still unknown about covid, and even the country's top infectious disease scientist Dr Anthony Fauci has gone from saying masks are ineffective against covid to insisting they're very effective.
I am more forgiving of Fauci's change of mind than others, believing that new viruses can catch even the most brilliant medical minds by surprise.
But given Fauci's U-turn on masks, why shouldn't parents of young children be concerned about whether their kids should now use them?
Similarly, when the DoJ insists there is no critical race theory being taught at US schools, that is palpable nonsense.
Back in June, an English teacher named Dana Sangel-Plowe resigned from a top New Jersey prep school because she said CRT was being used to create a 'hostile culture of conformity and fear' and was causing white and male students to believe they are 'oppressors.'
Similar stories have been reported all over the country.
Just as there has been widespread incidence of transgender policies being forced on parents without proper debate.
Will it now be deemed domestic terrorism to express concern that trans women athletes should not be allowed to compete against women born to female biological bodies? Even when that is quite demonstrably a grotesque infringement of women's rights to equality?
Of course, there are limits to how far protest should go, and violence is never acceptable.
But there are numerous current laws available to the police if they wish to deal with any actual incidents of violence or threats of violence against school staff.
And there seems to have been a very different approach to the civil unrest we saw last summer in the wake of George Floyd's horrific killing, which led to appalling arson, looting and destruction of property.
I don't remember the DoJ issuing directives then that such behaviour was 'domestic terrorism.'
So, Attorney-General Merrick Garland's announcement strikes me as massive overreach by a Biden administration determined to stamp down on dissent.
As Ian Prior, former Principal Deputy Director of Public Affairs at DOJ, told DailyMail.com: 'While legitimate threats of violence are of course unacceptable and should be handled by local law enforcement, the Department of Justice has engaged in a frightening escalation with this shot across the bow of passionate moms and dads in a blatant effort to chill their freedom of speech.'
Where was the DoJ when a bunch of far-left woke activists followed female Democrat Senator Krysten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University where she teaches and howled at her even while she was inside a private stall? Senator Sinema was illegally filmed by people who had illegally broken onto campus, and she was clearly illegally harassed, yet the perpetrators haven't been described as domestic terrorists, nor has any edict been issued to target others who may consider doing the same. The double standard is absurd
I agree.
There are many countries whose governments shut down such dissent.
I'm thinking of brutal totalitarian regimes like China and North Korea.
But America is supposed to the land of the free, the very epicentre of free speech protected by a First Amendment that is the envy of the world.
This decision to weaponize parental concern is thus both deeply un-American and deeply worrying.
It's also deeply hypocritical.
Where was the DoJ when a bunch of far-left woke activists followed female Democrat Senator Krysten Sinema into a bathroom at Arizona State University where she teaches and howled at her even while she was inside a private stall?
Senator Sinema was illegally filmed by people who had illegally broken onto campus, and she was clearly illegally harassed, yet the perpetrators haven't been described as domestic terrorists, nor has any edict been issued to target others who may consider doing the same.
The double standard is absurd.
If you pay taxes in America, you are paying for your child's education, and you're fully entitled to have your say in how your child is educated.
If parents are no longer allowed a say in how their children are educated, and indeed are to be categorised as domestic terrorists for doing so, then why should they continue paying taxes to pay for that education?
President Biden has declared war on America's parents and their right to free speech, and it's a shameful abuse of his power.
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