Arntzen Teams with AG Knudsen on ‘Domestic Terrorists’ Claim

Montana’s Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen has joined forces with Attorney General Austin Knudsen in supporting Montana parents.

Arntzen sent a letter protesting the National School Boards Association after they, along with U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland, referred to parents as ‘domestic terrorists’.

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“We all remember when the United States Attorney General was going to prosecute parents across our nation saying that they were domestic terrorists,” said Superintendent Arntzen. “I reached out to of course, our Attorney General, and wanted a pathway forward because parents are the backbone of who we are as Montanans and they are our students first teachers.”

Arntzen was pleased that AG Knudsen immediately joined a multistate lawsuit to protest that characterization.

“I'm very pleased that AG Knudsen has joined a multi state lawsuit with 14 other states to make sure that any records that are dealing with this discussion have sunshine and the brightness of information to know exactly how this happened,” she said. “Because in Montana, our parents are our children's first teachers and we want to uphold Montana’s parental rights.”

She described her letter to the National School Boards Association.

“It was not a terse letter by any means but it was a letter that shared who we are and who we want to be,” she said. “A top down heavy handed federal investigation into our Montana families is not to be tolerated here in Montana.”

KGVO asked Arntzen if there had been any Montana families referred to by the National School Boards Association, or any Montana School Board as being ‘domestic terrorists’.

“I'm very pleased that there hasn't been,” she said. “But we made a big reach out from our office and myself personally, to our county sheriff's as well as to any of the county attorneys to see if indeed any of those things might occur. Because this was such a broad stroke of the federal government that could shed more blame onto parents for any kind of an of an action, that we wanted to make sure that these parents were protected.”

Arntzen said she was pleased to see the Montana School Boards Association begin to distance itself from the national organization.