Jeff Bryant reports on a frightening phenomenon: the notorious and violent Proud Boys are targeting public schools.
He begins:
When violent insurrectionists stormed the U.S. Capitol on January 6 to attempt to overturn the result of the 2020 presidential election, some of the rioters were members of the Proud Boys, a far-right group prone to street brawling and pro-Western, anti-Muslim, and misogynistic rhetoric.
The insurrectionists were thwarted, but now extremist groups—including the Proud Boys—are aiming their threats and violence at a new target: public schools.
In Orange County, North Carolina, the Proud Boys and other white nationalist groups have begun showing up at high school football games and school board meetings, “protesting the district’s COVID-19 and LGBTQ+ policies.” Their intimidating language, apparel, and physical gestures prompted officials to hire extra security and pass a resolution opposing “incidents of hostile and racist behavior,” according to a report in the News and Observer.
The resolution charged that the rightwing agitators had “shouted racist and homophobic slurs at students” and included “emails from teachers and students who describe how unsafe they feel being around the Proud Boys.”
A local radio station quoted Orange County board chairwoman Hillary MacKenzie describing a recent meeting of the board where “there were two men in Proud Boys shirts and hats . . . one wore a stocking over his face . . . the other one told our board during public comment that someone should tie rocks around our necks, and we should throw ourselves in a river.”
Similar occurrences from around the country seem to indicate that the Proud Boys’ targeting of public schools is a coordinated, nationwide effort, suggesting a direct line from the group’s involvement in the January 6 insurrection to its current participation in the wave of protests at public schools and school board meetings.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Strange how all nazis behave the same …
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These groups tend to show up at events or environments where they feel safe, comfortable, or welcome.
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Good morning Diane and everyone,
A little something to think about:
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Thank you for sharing this powerful TedTalk Mamie. It made me tear up.
“I was lonely…. I started to withdraw and began to resent my parents.”
“It was as if this man in the alley offered me a lifeline. I didn’t know what my purpose was. I grabbed onto the lifeline.”
Identity, community, purpose – this (rather than bits of data) should be what we build schools around.
Best part – “I don’t push them away I draw them in closer. I listen very closely for their ‘potholes’ and begin to fill them in.”
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I wish Democrats could defend public education and public schools but unfortunately Democrats have been utterly captured by a lockstep, echo chamber ed reform “movement” that doesn’t value public education or public schools, so here we are.
We have Republicans attacking our schools and no political advocates to defend them.
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This is a problem.
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and national teacher’s union leaders who have tried for two decades to play the ‘middle’
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Exactly. The Dem leadership pays minimal lip service to public education but when it’s time to actually DO something about strengthening it we get half-measures or nothing.
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I agree. I am a retired classroom teacher. Right now, I am frustrated because we are NOT hearing push back regarding these attacks from our NEA leaders. I think I’ve seen ‘milk toast comments’ regarding these attacks from MNEA. This is unacceptable. We must push back hard to make these attacks either stop or subside. Together we can!
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Precisely. The unions are personified by Randi Weingarten’s preoccupation with reopening schools, despite the mounting deaths of children and the horrors of MIS-C and Long Covid. Last week another 26 children died of Covid, absolutely unnecessary. Why are the Democrats and unions promoting this policy? Because of the drop in the labor participating rate, e.g. getting caregivers back to work and propping up “the economy” [e.g. the stock market]. Educators and parents need independent organizations that fight to protect our children and ourselves, and end the pandemic. Have you heard of Lisa Diaz and the school strikes across the UK? A very
powerful step forward.
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Right wing billionaires are funding the campaign to sic “irate” parents on school boards. It is an attack on democracy itself. The “thought police” are also going after outspoken university professors as well.
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Yes, thanks to the embarrassingly bad reporting from the so-called liberal media, the story is about siccing “irate” parents on school boards.
Imagine if the story was: Trump supporting parent who says the 2020 election was stolen from the rightful winner, Donald Trump, wants to be in charge of what teachers are allowed to teach in public schools.
Very different framing that would actually make the public more aware of the threat we are facing.
We have a bunch of flat-earther parents who are angry that the schools are teaching facts that contradict their belief that the earth is flat, and the media is presenting them merely as “concerned” or “irate” parents who just care so much about their children getting the best possible education and who want to get “politics” out of education.
Teaching that the earth isn’t flat is “political” to flat earthers. Teaching that Biden won the 2020 presidential election fairly and legally and there was no voter fraud is “political” to flat earthers.
Reporting that the “irate” parents happen to believe the big lie, believe that white people are supreme, and aren’t bothered by racism and xenophobia spewed by their president makes the story very different.
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They set themselves up badly because vax+ people are now able to honestly say, like Italy, that “the neo Fascist element supports the antivax movement and anti LGBTQ2S movement” which is a PR disaster for those movements.
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So are they still “standing by”?
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The right wing slime feel so emboldened by the Trump GOP that they have crawled out from under the rocks and feel they have the right to disrupt school board meetings. What’s next, will these brown shirts force their way into public schools to make sure that teachers are properly right wingish in their lessons?
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You’re correct!!! They have been there all along. They have recently been emboldened to show their true selves.
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Thanks Diane!
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One of the dangers of this: ignorant high-school males watching the ludicrous, ignorant Proud Boys (emphasis on “boys,” hearty guffaw at “proud”) and thinking it would be cool to join them.
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