Palmetto State News

Two of South Carolina's largest education organizations refused to respond to questions about a recent memo from U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland regarding the "disturbing spike" in harassment and threats to school administrators, board members, faculty and staff.

In the memo issued on Oct. 4 to the Federal Bureau of Investigation and state attorneys general, Garland wrote that the threats are illegal. However, he did not specifically state in the memo what the threats centered on and who is making them.

"The Department takes these incidents seriously and is committed to using its authority and resources to discourage these threats, identify them when they occur, and prosecute them when appropriate," Garland wrote.

The South Carolina Education Association and the Palmetto State Teachers Association did not return emails and calls to discuss the matter with Palmetto State News.

Garland's memo came after the National School Boards Association wrote a letter to President Joe Biden regarding threats and acts of intimidation at school board meetings, including disruptions of some meetings in California, Florida, Georgia, and other states over local directives for students to wear mask coverings to protect students and educators from COVID-19.

"I am directing the Federal Bureau of Investigation, working with each United States Attorney, to convene meetings with federal, state, local, Tribal, and territorial leaders in each federal judicial district within 30 days of the issuance of this memorandum," Garland wrote. "These meetings will facilitate the discussion of strategies for addressing threats against school administrators, board members, teachers, and staff, and will open dedicated lines of communication for threat reporting, assessment, and response."

Senior Fellow Andrew C. McCarthy recently wrote in the National Review that the First Amendment protects free speech in all cases except when "it unambiguously calls for the use of force that the speaker clearly intends, under circumstances in which the likelihood of violence is real and imminent. Even actual “threats of violence” are not actionable unless they meet this high threshold."