Cecelia Lewis was asked to apply for a Georgia school district’s first-ever administrator job devoted to diversity, equity and inclusion. A group of parents-coached by local and national anti-CRT groups-had other plans.

In the first wide-ranging analysis of school board unrest, ProPublica found nearly 60 incidents that led to arrests or criminal charges Almost all were in suburban districts, and nearly every participant was white.

College students arrested. A parking lot altercation. A retired teacher waking up to a broken window Events at a school district in Conway, Arkansas, illustrate the alarming trend of unrest at school board meetings across the country.

Eric Jensen, a parent in North Carolina, had grievances to air about library books “trying to convert kids to gay” and about mask and vaccine mandates. So he joined an activist group and headed to a school board meeting.

An angry parent confronted a New Jersey school board president, accelerating a chain of events that pushed the board to the right.

Parents protestd a mask mandate at a Webster, New York, school board meeting. After Ken Macini tried to enforce the policy, a parent he ejected pressed charges for harassment.

It is imperative that we study how the historic Black press has muscled through similar times when power sought to reshape reality through mainstream media, launch hateful attacks against racial and ethnic minorities to block their access to the ballot, and foment violence through their words and actions to destabilize communities. 

“This is not the makeup of a multiracial democracy at work. This is dripping in the language, overtures and undertones of white supremacy, no longer hidden under a blanket of short-lived political correctness. Education is the great equalizer, so when one seeks to maintain or gain power, education is the target.

The public school system is the one institution most of us will pass through in our lifetime. It’s where we’re molded from our earliest years. It’s where we are socialized and shaped. It’s where we learn how to deal with conflict and sensibilities before we shoot off into the world.”