‘America’s new civil war.’ Inside local school board meetings

Posted Jan 27, 2022, By Mindi Wisman

Melanie Wilson at the Women’s March in Washington, DC, 2017.

Today’s Voices from the Field is authored by Melanie Wilson, Evaluation Specialist for Youth Catalytics.

Melanie brings us a first-hand, behind-the-scenes account of the complicated and contentious actions of her local school board meetings that have, like many across the country, become cataclysmic during the course of the pandemic.

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Glenn said he has been a resident for 44 years, is a business owner, and said that kids are being failed by the school district and leave school without any skills. He said the country will not become socialist under his watch, he is not part of the Proud Boys, but civil war is coming. He shouted, swore, and threatened the board and staff.

Ellie read a list of words identifying CRT, including bias, social justice, and racism. She also said individual board members have no morals or souls, said policies are against the Civil Rights Act, and said all board members are racist and white supremacists. She wished all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Dean spoke out against masking and the sexual education curriculum, asked why there was a [school theater performance] without masks, and read guidelines from his phone. He then took off his mask and swore.

Wendi, district parent, joined via Zoom and thanked the board for following the mandates, shared that COVID-19 rates are lower in districts with mask mandates, which will allow us to stay open. She said others are inviting hate groups and harassing board members, singling some board members out, have attributed her words to a board member, and that things are getting worse every meeting. 

~ Excerpts from Official School District Board Meeting Minutes, Sept. 28, and Nov. 23, 2021

If you’re reading this, chances are very good that like me, you’ve participated in dozens of work groups, coalitions, and teams, every one of them tackling some deep and complicated community problem – teen pregnancy, teen gun violence, human trafficking, youth opioid abuse, youth homelessness. Sometimes, obviously, these efforts fall short. Never because our values differ, though. Never because we don’t agree the problems are real, and that they have real-life causes that can and should be addressed. Even when contentious, it feels good working with people who agree on the fundamentals. It feels sane. That’s what things are like inside the can-do, pro-social, pro-science, good vibes club to which the human services field belongs – sane. How are things outside? That’s what this post is about.

The Fight Club

A few months ago, I stumbled into America’s new civil war, and the verbal fusillade above, helpfully summarized and posted on my local school district’s website, is what it sounds like. To tell the truth, I didn’t need the summary. I heard these comments and many others in their full glory, because I was there, seated alongside black-and-yellow outfitted Proud Boys. (Yes, those guys.) 

I report all this from my newish home in the Pacific Northwest. I like my misty little riverside town. It’s un-ironically quirky in the way of small towns in the Midwest, where I grew up. Murals of horses, bears, and other animals cover the sides of buildings, and random animal statues dot downtown intersections. Occasionally there’s an empty storefront or weedy lot, but the town seems cautiously upbeat, ready and even yearning to become vibrant and bustling.  

This used to be a conservative pocket of a blue state; now the pocket is purplish because new people are moving in and changing both the town and its politics. These changes aren’t welcomed by everyone, of course. But that’s only part of the reason for the local civil war. On top of the growing population and rural-to-suburban shift, there’s been the broader upheavals that have affected everyone in the country: a year of fury about police violence against Black people, a demagogic white chauvinist President, a historic attack on the Capitol, and a protracted global pandemic. These cataclysms, each one profoundly damaging in its own right, have combined to wash away our civic moorings. 

“Things I felt absolutely certain could never happen in the United States have indeed happened, on national stages and in broad daylight.”

So it’s no surprise that people are lashing out. I want to lash out myself. For me, the last five years have been an out-of-body experience, where all my certainties about my country have been blown apart, as though blasted by one of those AR-15 rifles that are flying off the shelves these days. Things I felt absolutely certain could never happen in the United States have indeed happened, on national stages and in broad daylight. And they keep happening, almost every single day. I feel betrayed and alienated from my own society and government. 

So, casting about for something practical to do, I put my foot down gingerly onto the nearest battlefield I could find, to see whatever I could see and offer whatever aid I could. That’s how I ended up at my local school board meetings. Across the country, they’re where white political backlash, Christian nationalism, and anti-government/“pro-liberty” forces are boiling up, stoked by conservative groups and their helpful scripts, action plans, and tool kits. I thought if I actually attended a few of these raucous affairs I’d be able to understand what was really happening in our country. Was some reasoned solution possible? Could we all at least talk? 

After months of careful watching, it grieves me to say the answer is probably no. 

My Report-Out

What I’ve seen at these meetings: Clasped Bibles and little hand-held American flags, waving arms and raised voices, people writing the words “Tyrant” on other peoples’ cars, stony-faced school board members brutally heckled and mocked. Paramilitary thugs sitting in the backs with their arms crossed, watching. Board members stoically taking the hits, prevented by policy and decorum from doing anything but listen.

What I’ve heard at these meetings: On one side, normal board business: improvement plans, maintenance issues, boosterish nods to the football team and science fair and school play. On the other side, furious, and entirely unrelated opinion, always delivered by the same people. To wit: The Board is part of a police state reminiscent of the Soviet Union, masks in schools are child abuse, sex-ed teaches middle-schoolers how to masturbate, and social-emotional learning is code for critical race theory. Many of these declarations confound me, of course. I’ve been deeply involved in projects around adolescent pregnancy prevention and social-emotional learning. I know the speakers are wrong, but I can’t find an opening for facts in this setting. It’s an anti-factual debate, in fact, not a debate at all. It’s just people getting up and venting, three minutes a pop, one after another, cheering each other on as the outrage mounts. It’s a performance of pure id. I emphasize “performance,” since there’s a strong sense of theater in their statements, too. This group’s supporters will capture some of the juicy bits on their phones so they can be recycled on social media, dripping adrenaline into the local radical bloodstream.  

What I’ve figured out: The people standing to make wild and provably false claims are themselves deeply alienated, far more than I am, or any liberal I know. In their view, local, state, and federal authorities claim power that the U.S. Constitution does not give them, and so those authorities are, by definition, illegitimate. Elected and appointed authorities and the elites who orbit around them don’t represent “the people,” according to this worldview; they prey on them. Everything powerful people say is a lie designed to trick and deceive. To make matters worse, these powerful liars are stacked up vertically, with the big ones, like Bill Gates and our governor at the top, and the little ones, like the members of the school board, at the bottom. Big pharma is in the mix too, as are doctors, hospitals, local police departments, public health officials … well, just about everybody. And because the liars and their lies are interconnected in complicated but mutually reinforcing ways, it’s almost impossible to defeat them. There is no political solution, the local group of school board opponents says on their Telegram account, echoing the dark mutterings of “accelerationist” groups agitating for war.

“How frightening it would be to live in a society where you simply don’t believe any official explanation given to you, or any official suggestion made to you.”

This all-encompassing paranoia is deeply alarming. But it stirs something else in me: sympathy. How frightening it would be to live in a society where you simply don’t believe any official explanation given to you, or any official suggestion made to you. If nobody in a position of authority can be trusted, then you’re not heading toward dystopia, as I’ve been fearing we are. You’re already living in it, fighting for your very survival against an irremediably evil enemy who has the machinery of state on his side. In such a scenario, any attempts at normal communication are bound to fail. So what will succeed? 

This is not a rhetorical question, but a genuine one that needs to be answered, and quickly. What solutions are possible? 

Tools at our Disposal

What can we do? All we have are our own skills, experience, and tenacity. I’ve begun organizing a group to make a reasoned response to some of the more absurd and disingenuous allegations we’re hearing in our community – for instance, that “equity” in our schools is about reinforcing racism rather than producing more equal educational outcomes among students of all races and ethnicities. Some of us are taking a communication course about the rhetorical devices disinformers use and how to get in front of, and potentially counter, their destructive messages. We’re submitting comments to the district in support of the school board and writing letters to local newspapers. Soon, we’ll have a community blog that invites many voices to the table, with just one caveat: writers must come armed with credible evidence for their opinions. We’ll be anti-conspiracy, anti-extremist, pro-reason, pro-science. Sane, in other words. 

“We’re not going to be bullied into paralysis.”

Will this effort work? Will it reach the broad political middle in our community, calm tensions, and persuade the persuadable? Honestly, I’m hesitant to say it will. After all, we already live in a whirlwind of opinions, pumped out endlessly and nearly mindlessly, and we’re all spinning around in it. Offering a calmer, more reflective option for discourse won’t guarantee our success; in fact, it could contribute to our failure. But it’s what we can do. We’re not going to be bullied into paralysis.

I end this post by asking what you’re doing, those of you in this multi-specialty field? I’m talking about the group facilitators, the clinicians, the adolescent development experts, the community organizers, educators, and advocates. You’re good at what you do; I know it for a fact. So, if you haven’t stepped up to this fight, with all your skills, knowledge, and wisdom, then I’ll put it to you plainly: We need you.