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- School board meetings have become a "battleground," the director of a school administrators group said.
- Daniel Domenech of the American Association of School Administrators told CNN that meetings are the stage of contentious political and cultural topics.
- School board meetings have reached a boiling point as officials face harassment and abuse.
School board meetings across the country have become a "battleground" for hot-button culture war issues, a top administrator said in an interview with CNN on Monday.
Daniel Domenech, executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, said the once-mundane community event has now become center stage for some of the country's most contentious social topics to be debated – often without civility.
Domenech called the meetings a "battleground" amid parent backlash over mask mandates, vaccination requirements, and the supposed teaching of "critical race theory" in classes.
To compliment flaring tensions inside the meetings, school board officials are also being harassed and threatened by parents and community members, Domenech said.
Domenech said he's noticed that more superintendents are quitting their jobs because of the abuse.
"Their families have been threatened," Domenech said. "The children, if they have been in the schools, are being threatened. And that's not usual."
Domenech said it's a "concern" when school officials leave, because it creates a staffing vacuum that could see experienced administrators get replaced by others without much experience.
That could lead to more ideological school board members installing education leaders who align with their political positions.
"And as you get these changes on school boards, those new board members that have been elected on the particular issues that they're running - they'll probably be the ones that will fire the existing superintendent and hire somebody who agrees with their point of view and their position," he said.
School board meetings have grown increasingly heated lately as areas of political contention and culture war drama reach a boiling point.