Tuesday’s school board meeting in Loudoun County, Virginia, a wealthy suburb of Washington, D.C., became chaotic and must have caused great discomfort among board members who support the teaching of Critical Race Theory. We know because they cut the meeting short, filed out of the room, and had it declared an “unlawful assembly” (!) by the Loudoun County Sheriff’s Department. As we reported Wednesday morning, two attendees were arrested after the meeting hall was cleared simply for choosing to stick around, as they hadn’t had their opportunity to speak.

Divisive Curriculum Brings Parents Together

One of those arrested, retired Air Force veteran and small business owner Jon Tigges — not the one who was tackled to the floor — appeared on Wednesday’s Tucker Carlson Tonight.

In his lead-in, Tucker pointed out that kids in Loudoun County public schools aren’t allowed to read To Kill a Mockingbird any more. (Note: this is one of the greatest books ever written about race, but leftists misinterpret and reject it as a sort of “white savior” story. Also, it was written by a white lady, Harper Lee.) “Instead,” he continued, “they’re assigned pornographic novels and told that America is an evil, racist place.”

What Loudoun County’s divisive curriculum is doing, paradoxically, is bringing together parents of differing political stripes. It seems most parents don’t want their kids to grow up racist — who knew? So when the board agreed to solicit public comments, they got more than they bargained for. Speakers reminded the board that it works for them — that Loudoun County residents are their bosses and will return them to the private sector at the earliest possible moment.

First Amendment Rights Trampled

As Mr. Tigges explained to Tucker, he didn’t know why he was arrested, because he was in a place “where free speech has to happen.” Where else are you going to air your grievances about school than at a school board meeting? He noted that it was on public land, in a public auditorium, and they had specifically been invited to a public forum to give public comment.

“And at the end of all that,” he said, “every single person there, all 500 parents, had their First Amendment rights trampled on by the Loudoun County school board and its superintendent.”

The building was reserved until 7 p.m., and Tigges was arrested at around 5:45, he said. But “the school board heard something they didn’t like,” which he said was applause for former State Sen. Dick Black. That, apparently, is when they shut the meeting down.

According to Tigges (and there is video to back him up), there was no violence happening, nothing crazy. “People stayed there [after the adjournment], they actually started singing [The Star-Spangled Banner],” and then “if the school board didn’t want to hear it,” they thought they would continue sharing their thoughts with one another, in an orderly and peaceful way, just as if the board were there. So they lined up at the microphone as they would’ve done in front of the board. Tigges said that both sides were allowed to speak, and no one in line to speak was involved in any misbehavior.

Free Speech Shut Down

But then, abruptly, their meeting was declared an unlawful assembly. He believes the threats of arrest and the rough take-down of that other man were, as far as he could tell, a “complete leftist diversionary tactic that was pre-planned.”

Tigges was released later after receiving a trespassing summons.

He called the First Amendment “the most sacred of all of our rights.” To shut down free speech requires an enormous amount of justification, he said. I get the impression he’s willing to get himself quietly arrested as many times as it takes for him to exercise that right.

The Loudoun County School Board is expected to vote on their new proposals on August 10. There has been no word on whether they will entertain public comments again before they vote, but I wouldn’t hold my breath.

Here’s another account of the meeting, from Legal Insurrection.

Iowans Find Out How Racist They Are

So that’s where we are with the Loudoun County schools. Let’s look at Iowa, where some news on Twitter (the censors missed it) tells us that, according to leaked documents, Iowa teachers are forced to classify “Make America Great Again” as “racism” and “white supremacy.” The teachers have to participate in CRT training, at taxpayers’ expense.

Since Trump won Iowa in 2016 by 9 points, I guess the idea is to tell Iowans how racist they are.

Scroll down at this link to see the “Racism Pyramid.” You’ll find attributes such as “colorblindness,” “celebrating Columbus Day” and “bootstrap theory” listed as signs of racism, right along with MAGA.

And here’s a good resource if you have kids or grandkids in college or soon to be. Critical Race Training in Education has stories from campuses around the country.

Civil Rights Laws Protect Black People and White People as Well

Finally, in an Epoch TV interview, Carol Swain, who was co-chair of President Trump’s 1776 Commission, explains how teaching Critical Race Theory may violate the Constitution (1st and 14th Amendments) as well as federal civil rights legislation.

Much of what she says is summarized in print in this Epoch Times “premium” article.

If you don’t have “premium” access, I’ll summarize: Swain, a former professor of political science and law at Princeton and Vanderbilt Universities, says the demonization of one group of people because of their skin color is discriminatory. She says white people being forced to apologize for their race and confess to racism because of their race are protected by the Civil Rights Act of 1964.

She said something that will shock leftists; namely that “white people are protected in the same way that black people are by civil rights laws.” Bullying and shaming people because of their color creates a hostile environment and might do psychological harm to school kids. White children are being bullied and told to accept guilt over their ancestors’ oppression of black people.

Also, the Equal Protection clause of the 14th Amendment is supposed to guarantee certain protections to everyone.

The True Story of America

Swain had some great ideas for dealing with this. One way is to go public, perhaps in publications such as The College Fix and Campus Reform. And at a time when so many are ripping down America and condemning her past, she offered some inspiring words about America’s history:

I think America has been so important to the world, that the true history of its founding, along with the mistakes that were made and just how we address those mistakes, are things that enrich people … The true story of America is a story of blacks and whites working together to overcome the tragic part of our history.

By the way, Swain was born in the segregated South as one of 12 children, dropped out of high school to get married at 16, and had three small children before she was 21. She got back on the road to higher learning with a high school equivalency degree and community college, going on to earn five degrees.

 

Mike Huckabee is the former governor of Arkansas and longtime conservative commentator on issues in culture and current events. A New York Times best-selling author, he hosts the weekly talk show Huckabee on TBN. 

Originally published on MikeHuckabee.com. Reprinted with permission.