Why Are the Proud Boys Showing up at School Board Meetings In America?
They didn’t find success at a national level, so now they’re taking things hyper-local
School board meetings used to be rather boring affairs that typically only dedicated parents and community members would attend. But now, these formerly uneventful meetings have brought the same culture wars being fought at the national level, straight to your local hometown.
I’d been watching anti-mask protests happening across the country this past year and a half with confusion. Why were people so bent out of shape at putting a cloth covering over their face that might stop the spread of a deadly disease and save lives?
As strange as this seemed, I felt fortunate that my community, for the most part, wore masks. When schools reopened last spring, masks were mandatory for everyone. And it worked. Wearing masks and social distancing, among other protocols, kept large outbreaks out of our school system. The kids were happy to be back, and I never heard of a single complaint from my daughter about wearing her mask. She even told me after a few minutes of wearing it, she forgets she has it on.
So this summer, when school was set to reopen in the fall, I assumed we’d do it the same way. The way that had been working so well. Masks, social distancing, testing, upgraded ventilation systems, whatever it took to keep our unvaccinated children as safe as possible in school.
You can imagine my surprise when I (while streaming the August meeting from home) saw a large group of unmasked people in red shirts attending. These people were loud, opinionated, and didn’t hesitate to heckle the school board members. When the board announced the vote to make masks optional for students and staff, the crowd cheered.
I was shocked and horrified, and soon began researching options for homeschooling.
Fast forward a few weeks, and much to my relief, the governor of our state made masks mandatory in schools. Many of the parents I know had the same reaction I did. The anti-maskers, by far the loudest, didn’t seem to hold the majority opinion.
With the mandate settled by law, I thought the ridiculous fight was over. We could get on with the business of getting our children back to school as safely as possible.
But no, that’s not how it worked out. The anti-mask parents did not want to give up. They staged protests. They flooded Facebook with misinformation on vaccines, Covid, testing, and mask-wearing.
Some schools in our area did ignore the mask mandate. They found themselves with revoked status and an inability to participate in state sports.
At the next school board meeting, after our district had announced we would be following the government regulations, the anti-maskers returned. They showed up en masse, wearing masks because they had to, but speaking about the dangers and horrors of mask-wearing to the board and pleading that our school ignores the mask mandate.
During the meeting, a man in the audience who was not wearing a mask was asked repeatedly to put his mask on. He refused and was eventually escorted out of the building by police officers and charged with trespassing.
For the record, the meeting was live-streamed for anyone to watch at home. If someone couldn’t wear a mask, they had an alternative way to view the meeting. As it turns out, this man does not live within the boundaries of my school district, nor does he appear to have a child in a school here.
Despite this, he became the rallying cry for the anti-mask group. At the next school board meeting, the Proud Boys showed up in protest of the arrest of this man. They sat up front in the meeting, sporting their Proud Boy regalia, with their faces almost completely covered by bandanas.
To make things even more surreal, I spotted one unidentified man wearing a Michael Meyers Halloween mask sitting near the podium. Certainly, nothing I’ve ever seen at a school board meeting before in my life.
It’s happening everywhere
There are reports that the Proud Boys have attended school board meetings in Florida and New Hampshire. I witnessed it myself in Illinois.
In Washington, three schools went on lockdown when Proud Boys attempted to enter a school building during a mask protest.
And in Haven, Kansas, a man with ties to the Proud Boys and a history of promoting white supremacy, did more than show up at a meeting or stage a protest. He was on the ballot for the school board. Thankfully, he lost.
Far-right extremist groups, like the Proud Boys, are teaming up with the anti-maskers and anti-vaxxers to help insert themselves into the school debates. Their goal is to fight their fight at a local level. Since so many of them were arrested for storming the capitol on January 6, they’re keeping things local in the hopes of gaining support for their agenda without getting themselves into more trouble.
And what is their agenda? It’s the same as the other far-right, hate-filled ultraconservative groups that have jumped on the anti-mask bandwagon. These groups protest teaching inclusivity for LGBTQ+ students. They don’t want critical race theory, Black Lives Matter, or sex education taught in schools.
They’re harassing people at school board meetings
In Franklin, Tennesse, at the beginning of the school year, a group of anti-mask parents threatened a doctor and others that had spoken in support of mask mandates at their school board meeting. The video went viral on social media.
In Vista, California, the school board meeting grew so chaotic that it had to be shut down three times. Similar situations have been occurring around the country.
They’re harassing teachers
We’re losing good teachers. Teachers that care about their students. Teachers that make a difference in children’s lives.
They’re being harassed over masks and they’re being harassed over what they teach. In Texas, a teacher was physically assaulted by an anti-mask parent at a “meet the teacher” event before the year even began.
In Glen Ellyn, Illinois, a 24-year-old teacher was recently targeted by conservative hate groups when they found her TikTok account, where she had highlighted books she kept in her classroom. These books had titles like, It Feels Good To Be Yourself and Kid Activists.
The anti-maskers are combining forces with hate groups like the Proud Boys in an attempt to take over the moral compass of the nation starting at a hyper-local level.
Don’t think it can’t happen where you live. That’s what I thought. I was wrong. Pay attention to local elections and vote. If you have children in school, watch what’s going on with your school board meetings. Email board members or show up at meetings to voice your support on issues that are important to you.
I wonder if the reason my school board voted to make masks optional at the beginning of the year was that they had only heard from the anti-maskers all summer long. We can’t let those be the only voices heard.
