DOJ now looking for threats to parents' rights, after Biden's threats against parents themselves

The Department of Justice this week issued a memo directing the Civil Rights Division to work with federal, state and local partners to identify threats to parental rights and free speech in education, following years of parents' rights being trampled on under the Biden administration. Many of the parents say their voices were silenced as well.

"Recent years have seen a disturbing trend in which state and local authorities have brought radical gender and racial ideology into our public schools while suppressing dissenting viewpoints," Attorney General Pam Bondi wrote in the memo. "Worse still, they have ignored, dismissed, and even retaliated against concerned parents who speak out against these morally and factually bankrupt ideologies and in defense of their own children."

Bondi: Constitutional rights "do not yield to political trends"

"The First Amendment guarantees the right of every citizen to speak freely, assemble peaceably, and petition the government for redress of grievances—including at public school board meetings," she added. "These rights do not yield to political trends or bureaucratic convenience. While schools must maintain order, such authority cannot be used as a pretext to silence dissent or punish parents for expressing their views."

She further highlighted the rights of parents to exempt their children from instruction contrary to their religious beliefs, specifically pointing to gender and sexual orientation-related issues. "We are restoring the rule of law and returning the federal government to the people it serves. This Department stands with America's parents," her memo concluded.

Under the Biden administration, there have been multiple stories of parental rights being violated in the school system, resulting in protests and parents speaking out. Some have even been arrested at school board meetings. 

In October 2021, a 15-year-old student who identified as transgender was arrested for allegedly sexually assaulting two female students at two separate high schools in the Loudoun County, Virginia, Public School district.

According to local news station WUSA, the first assault was reported on May 28, 2021, at Stone Bridge High School, while another one allegedly occurred on Oct. 8 of that year at Broad Run High School.

The parent of one of the alleged victims was arrested at a school board meeting, where he shouted at officials for not doing more to protect his daughter. Ex-Loudoun County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler was found guilty by a jury in 2023 for using his position as superintendent to retaliate against a teacher who cooperated with a grand jury to expose how the district covered up a sexual assault.

Forcing children to adopt pro-transgender material, dissenting parents called "domestic terrorists"

In 2023, a Maryland school district told parents via email that they were not allowed to opt their children out of "engaging with any instructional materials" related to gender identity ideology. 

The parents in Montgomery County Public Schools received an email that informed them that they would no longer be notified about the instructional materials used for that subject matter. The school district made it clear that students can still opt out of sex education, but have to complete lessons on gender identity. 

Dissenting parents felt the squeeze put on them years earlier. In 2021, the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to President Biden, saying parents who complain publicly about curricula are "the equivalent to a form of domestic terrorism."

Later that same year, then-Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a memorandum to all federal law enforcement agencies requiring "strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response."

On behalf of parents who advocate for their children and push back against woke ideologies in schools, several states submitted Freedom of Information Act requests to the Biden Administration. Those requests were ignored, the states sued, and won their case, forcing the release of related documents.

In turn, the documents included a communication with President Joe Biden who “was excited … to go after parents” as “domestic terrorists” and use the Patriot Act against them, said then-House Judiciary Committee ranking member Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio.