The NSBA appeared to have coordinated with the White House and other US government agencies before penning the now controversial letter about "threats and acts of violence against school board members", Fox News has reported, citing e-mails it exclusively obtained.
Not only did the letter call attention to the issue of threats to school board officials, but it also urged to label parents concerned about COVID-19 measures potential "domestic terrorists". After triggering a strong backlash, the NSBA issued an apology for the language used in the letter.
In the e-mails cited by Fox News, new details emerged about how the NSBA letter was drafted. According to the correspondence, NSBA President Viola Garcia and one of the association's executives, Chip Slaven, altered the language of the letter sent to the Biden administration following the meetings with White House officials.
"In talks over the last several weeks with White House staff, they requested additional information on some of the specific threats, so the letter also details many of the incidents that have been occurring", the e-mail allegedly written by Slaven on 29 September reads.
On Wednesday, the organisation Parents Defending Education posted a screenshot from one of the alleged NSBA e-mails "that went back and forth" after the association sent its controversial letter. The organisation also provided a link to a webpage with more of the e-mails, which turned out to be unavailable as of Friday.
In October, Parents Defending Education obtained an NSBA memo, in which the timeline of the meetings between officials from the NSBA and the White House was given.
"In the September 14, 2021 meeting of the [NSBA Organisation of State Association Executive Directors] liaison group, they were informed there had been a meeting with White House staff that morning and that NSBA was preparing to send a letter to the president. [...]", the memo said. "In response to the letter sent by NSBA, on October 4, 2021, the attorney general announced in a memorandum widely shared throughout the US Department of Justice that he was ordering all US Attorney Offices and local FBI offices to reach out to local and state law enforcement officials to coordinate efforts on this problem within 30 days of the memorandum".
At the time, AG Merrick Garland, when commenting on the Department of Justice memorandum regarding threats to school officials, said that this document did not rely upon the NSBA letter.
The letter which eventually forced the NSBA to apologise asserted that some "acts of malice, violence, and threats against public school officials" could be classified as a "form of domestic terrorism". Its critics immediately viewed it as a "baseless" allegation against concerned parents who voiced their opposition to restrictive COVID-19 measures.