Armed Agents In Texas School District Arrest Concerned Parents In Their Own Homes
According to reports from Christopher Rufo of the City Journal, the Round Rock Independent School District (RRISD) in Texas is employing its own armed agents to arrest parents who speak out against the school board’s policies.
Rufo, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute said this :
The battle lines are clear: on one side, the Biden administration, public school bureaucrats, and their armed agents; on the other, parents and families who oppose school closures, mask mandates, critical race theory and corruption. Public school officials have demonstrated a willingness to use police power to silence and intimidate their opponents.
Two fathers, Jeremy Story and Dustin Clark had spoken out against the school board and their “alleged corruption and school officials’ hostility toward parents”. Story was “produc[ing] evidence that the board had covered up an alleged assault by the superintendent, Hafedh Azaiez, against a mistress” before he was cut off midsentence by Azaiez, the superintendent. Azaiez then order officers to remove Story from the meeting, according to Chronicles Magazine.
The district’s mask mandate was a popular topic of discussion in the next meeting. The school board “locked the majority of parents out of the room, preventing them from speaking”. As a result of this, Clark, a former Army captain, and other parents had to request the opportunity to speak. Parents were asking the school board to open the floor to public commentary on the major policy item that was the mask mandate. Clark was leading the pleas to try and have his voice heard. According to Rufo, “school board president Amy Weir directed officers to remove Clark from school property”.
“As he was dragged out by two officers, Clark shouted at the school board: ‘It’s an open meeting! Shame on you. Communist! Communist! Let the public in!’” Rufo alleged.
RRISD has its own police force, says Rufo, who explains that it includes a three-layer chain of command, patrol units, school resource officers, a detective, and a K-9 unit.”
After Clark and Story were removed from the school board premises, the district “sent police officers to the homes of both men [Story and Clark], arrested them, and put them in jail on charges of ‘disorderly conduct with intent to disrupt a meeting”. They were released from custody the next morning.
Many parents feel the school board is attempting to send a message that “if you speak out against us, we will turn you into criminals.”
According to Rufo, these strategies are not exclusive to RRISD:
In Loudoun County, Virginia, for example, where parents have protested against critical race theory and a sexual assault cover-up, the superintendent asked the county sheriff to deploy a SWAT team, riot control unit, and undercover agents to monitor parents at school board meetings.
The Loudoun sheriff refused to cooperate with the superintendent’s request, claiming that the board had failed to provide “any justification for such a manpower-intensive request”.
Stay tuned to The Scoop for any updates.
