AIM’s Loudoun Love Warriors activism featured in piece on Real Clear Politics
September 8, 2023
Merrick Garland and the Love Warriors
The year 2021 was not an easy one to be a school board member. Some parents had concerns about the use of critical race theory in the curriculum, and many were angry about school closings and restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Public school board meetings grew increasingly contentious in many districts.
In October of that year, U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland issued a controversial order directing the FBI and other federal agencies to identify and prosecute violent threats and harassment from parents attending school board meetings.
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Meanwhile, in Loudoun County
Fast forward a year later. In Loudoun County, Virginia, a mere 40 miles from FBI headquarters, a new controversy erupted related to school board meetings and alleged threats of violence. Only this time, it was the parents who were the target of the threats.
The controversy began after some Loudoun County parents spoke up at school board meetings on issues such as school safety, single-sex bathrooms, and parental rights in education. Some were later threatened with violence on a message board for a Facebook group that called itself, rather incongruously, the “Loudoun Love Warriors.”
Members of the Loudoun Love Warriors group published the home address of at least one outspoken parent and began a campaign to demand that others be fired from their jobs. One father said that he lost his job after the group contacted his employer.
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Conservative activists were galvanized by the close relationships between Loudoun County officials and members of the Facebook group. A conservative media watchdog group, Accuracy in Media, launched a billboard campaign to publicize the connection between Loudoun County school board officials and the individuals who posted the online threats.