DeSantis: We Will Not Let Officials 'Intimidate Parents': 'In Florida, Parents Should Speak Out'

Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) on Thursday vowed his administration will not allow power-hungry officials or organizations to “intimidate parents” in Florida, blasting the National School Board Association (NSBA) for attempting to get the FBI involved in the actions of concerned parents, which it described as potential acts of “domestic terrorism.”

Speaking in Pensacola, Florida, pitching $100 million in the budget for the Florida National Guard, as well as the creation of the Florida State Guard, DeSantis briefly spoke about the Florida School Board Association’s recent decision to withdraw from the NSBA.

“I support what the Florida School Board Association did. I think it was the right thing to get out of the National School Board Association. The National School Board Association was using its association to advance a partisan narrative and agenda,” DeSantis said.

“And they created this letter to try to get the FBI to start basically running interference at school board meetings. You know, they’re not interested in having the FBI go after the guy in Waukesha, Wisconsin, which was an intentional act of terrorism,” he observed.

“But they somehow think a parent who is upset that there is bad curriculum being put in school or forced masking or all these other things, if they speak out, that they are a domestic threat? Give me a break,” the governor said, noting that he remained opposed because he knew what they were doing.

“They were trying to intimidate parents. They did not want parents to be speaking out. And I can tell you in Florida, parents should speak out,” he said, explaining that the Sunshine State has great people in law enforcement who will hold actual criminals accountable.

“But going and speaking your mind is not that, and it was absolutely an attempt to intimidate,” DeSantis said.

“And I would say there is a divide now, between some of these elites, people that align with the teacher unions, and parents where they say that parents really don’t have much of a role in what goes on in school. I disagree with that,” he added.

This is far from the first time DeSantis has spoken out on the topic, noting this week that the establishment media is far hungrier to describe concerned parents as domestic terrorists than to accurately cover the Waukesha massacre.

“It seems like, for corporate press, they’re more apt to characterize a parent who protests bad policies at a school board meeting as a ‘domestic terrorist’ than somebody who intentionally rams an SUV into a crowd of innocent people,” he said.