Alexandria-based school boards group's 2021 letter cited only Loudoun as its Virginia example, DOJ report shows

When the National School Boards Association asked President Joe Biden for federal help against what it called threats to school officials in September 2021, it pointed to one Virginia incident: a contentious Loudoun County School Board meeting earlier that summer.

The full six-page letter is reprinted in a 273-page Justice Department report released this week. The report, "The 2026 Report to Expose the Weaponization of Government Against Parents in Schools," is dated Oct. 5 and was produced by the department's Weaponization Working Group. It concludes that the letter led directly to former Attorney General Merrick Garland's Oct. 4, 2021 memorandum on threats against school personnel. Attorney General Pamela Bondi has since rescinded that memo.

The NSBA letterhead lists the group's address on Duke Street in Alexandria. The letter is dated Sept. 29, 2021, and signed by Viola M. Garcia, then the group's president, and Chip Slaven, its interim executive director and CEO. It opens by saying that "America's public schools and its education leaders are under an immediate threat." It asks for "federal law enforcement and other assistance."

In its list of incidents, the letter says: "In Virginia, an individual was arrested, another man was ticketed for trespassing, and a third person was hurt during a school board meeting discussion distinguishing current curricula from critical race theory and regarding equity issues." Its footnote cites an NBC Washington article titled "'The Meeting Has Degenerated': 1 Arrest, 1 Injury at Loudoun Schools Meeting on Equity," dated June 22, 2021.

The DOJ report identifies Loudoun father Scott Smith as among the parents the NSBA "described as potential domestic terrorists." Smith was arrested at the June 22, 2021 meeting, weeks after his daughter was sexually assaulted in a girls' restroom at Stone Bridge High School. The letter itself does not name him. The report says his prosecution ended only after a pardon from then-Gov. Glenn Youngkin.

The letter goes on to say that "the classification of these heinous actions could be the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism and hate crimes." It asks for a review of "appropriate enforceable actions" under several laws, including the Gun-Free School Zones Act, the PATRIOT Act "in regards to domestic terrorism" and federal hate-crimes statutes. It also seeks help from the FBI, the Department of Homeland Security, the Secret Service and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service.

The DOJ report takes issue with the letter's examples. It says the letter "could only point to one example of a person being prosecuted for being violent and one other instance where it claimed 'a third person was hurt.'" The second of those is the Loudoun incident. In the report's view, many other examples, such as people calling administrators, posting watchlists or making strongly worded statements at meetings, were protected speech.

The report also reprints an after-action review the NSBA commissioned from attorney Philip Kiko and the law firm Michael Best & Friedrich. That review found the letter "was not authorized or approved by the Board of Directors or the Executive Committee." It also found that no board member other than the group's four officers reviewed it before it was sent. The review says White House senior adviser Mary Wall "had advance knowledge of the planned Letter and its specific contents." It also says White House officials discussed the letter with DOJ officials more than a week before it was finalized.

The NSBA review describes a Virginia connection inside the organization as well. On Sept. 9, 2021, Gina Patterson, executive director of the Virginia School Boards Association, emailed Slaven. According to the review, she voiced frustration that her board was getting information from other organizations before the NSBA shared it. The review says Slaven replied that he did not want to sour his relationship with the White House by releasing a statement early.

The review says President Biden called Garcia on Oct. 5, 2021, the day after the Garland memo was issued, to thank her. It also says that by Nov. 5, 2021, seven state associations had ended their NSBA memberships and seven more were considering it. The review does not list which states.

On Oct. 22, 2021, the NSBA board wrote to members: "we regret and apologize for the letter." The board added that "there was no justification for some of the language included in the letter." It also said parents' voices "should and must continue to be heard."

The DOJ report's conclusions are the working group's own. Its account does not include responses from the NSBA, Garcia, Slaven or Wall.

Email the Loudoun County School Board:
April Chandler, april.chandler@lcps.org,
Anne Donohue, anne.donohue@lcps.org,
Deana Griffiths, deana.griffiths@lcps.org,
Ross Svenson, ross.stevenson@lcps.org,
Kari LaBell, kari.labell@lcps.org,
Jon Pepper, jonathon.pepper@lcps.org,
Lauren Shernoff, lauren.shernoff@lcps.org,
Sumera Rashid, sumera.rashid@lcps.org,
Amy Riccardi, amy.riccardi@lcps.org,

Loudoun County is a county in Northern Virginia. Its county seat is Leesburg.