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Virginia Dad Takes On the School Board

Harry Jackson learns that educators don’t care what parents have to say.

By William McGurn
https://twitter.com/wjmcgurn
Oct. 11, 2021 6:29 pm ET

Harry Jackson left the Fairfax County School Board meeting Thursday night feeling frustrated. The father of a Thomas Jefferson High School sophomore, he had signed up to address the board about sexually explicit material in the school library, including work he and other parents say normalizes pedophilia. But the list of speakers ended right before his two minutes at the mic.

A student who did speak that evening defended the contested material, saying “there is nothing that is inappropriate unless you go looking for it.” Mr. Jackson takes it as a backhanded admission. “I am glad to see we agree there’s pornographic material in the library,” he says.

Thomas Jefferson isn’t just any public school—U.S. News & World Report ranks it No. 1 in the nation—and Mr. Jackson isn’t just any parent. Earlier this year, he was elected president of the school’s Parent Teacher Student Association, or PTSA. A graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and a retired naval intelligence officer, he’s one of thousands of American parents taking on their school boards across the country.

Like many of those rallying outside Thursday night’s meeting, Mr. Jackson wore a T-shirt saying "Parents are not ‘domestic terrorists.' " It’s a reference to a Sept. 29 National School Boards Association letter asking President Biden to investigate threats or disruptions at school board meetings as a possible form of “domestic terrorism.” In response, Attorney General Merrick Garland ordered the Federal Bureau of Investigation and U.S. attorneys to look into the threats.

All this has transformed once-dull school board meetings into increasingly raucous encounters between parents and officials. On so many of the hot-button issues of the day—from mask mandates and lockdowns to critical race theory, transgender policy and racial preferences for admissions—the public schools have become the vanguard for today’s progressive agenda. But parents such as Mr. Jackson aren’t taking it any more, and they show no sign of relenting.

“Did the NSBA really think through what it was saying?” Mr. Jackson asks. “Because you don’t negotiate with terrorists. You hit them with a drone strike, or ship them off to Guantanamo.”

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Write to mcgurn@wsj.com.

Appeared in the October 12, 2021, print edition as 'A Dad Takes On the School Board.'