Anchorage school board members receive requests for documents as efforts to personally sue them over mask mandate intensify

Earlier this month I revealed that a flyer distributed by unknown individuals at Eagle River Assemblyperson Jamie Allard’s “Alaska Freedom Convoy” event claimed that members of the Anchorage School Board were going to be personally sued for masking children.

The flyer has been seen posted at the Anchorage Public Library and shared in the Alaska Parents' Rights in Education and Alaskans For Children's Right to Breath Facebook groups.

I received some emails about this from individuals who mostly believed that the effort, if it was real and organized, wasn't anything to be concerned about.

Well, I feel comfortable saying now that the effort is indeed a real one even if it is likely to fail.

The Blue Alaskan has learned that Anchorage school board members (through the district) have received FOIA requests regarding photocopies of a number of documents, including a Public Official Surety Bond, from more than one individual. All documents are being processed by the school district through normal public requests for information procedures.

The plan to personally sue members of school boards is based on the idea that all government officials must have a private bond in order to hold office and that parents can then file claims against local school boards' bonds if school boards don't stop pursuing "unconstitutional" policies.

Posts and comments made to the Save Anchorage group this week by an Eagle River resident thanked individuals who had picked up flyers related to the effort to sue board members who voted for the district's mandated mask policy.

A comment made by a different individual in response to the post stated: "You have to go after their bonds...This is how you stop them. Get the forms that are used for this."

A second post, also made to the Save Anchorage group this week by the same author of the first, stated:

"WE ARE IN THE PROCESS OF PERSONALLY SUING THE ANCHORAGE SCHOOL BOARD MEMBERS WHO VOTED FOR THE MASKING OF CHILDREN AND VIOLATING OUR CHILDREN'S RIGHTS. THERE WILL BE AN AFFIDAVIT PARTY THIS SUNDAY. FEBRUARY 20TH AT 4:00 PM. CALL/TEXT 907-691-6928 FOR MORE INFORMATION."

Attempts to reach literally anyone at the number listed on the flyer and post have been unsuccessful.

According to a comment made by the author of the Save Anchorage posts above, the location of the "affidavit party" has not been divulged out of the need to keep "fascistbook" trolls at a distance.

Possible Origins

It's unclear where locals got the idea to personally sue school board members and attempt to lay claim to surety bonds, but it's possible the effort was derived from the website (or one similar) "Bonds for the Win," which tells parents they can threaten to file “surety bond claims” against school board members and superintendents — accusing them of violating multiple laws unless they make changes such as dropping mask requirements.

T. Keung Hu of The News & Observer in Raleigh, North Carolina reported that David McLennan, a political science professor at Meredith College in Raleigh, said "The attempt to threaten school boards with legal action is part of a larger effort by conservative groups to attack school boards for their positions on teaching racial issues and COVID mitigation strategies, like mask mandates."

Last month, QAnon influencer Ron Watkins spoke at a school board meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona about his plans to stop what he called a Communist takeover of children's minds. Watkins was with Miki Klann of Bonds for the Win, who served the school board with a letter of intent — seeking to file a claim against their surety bonds for enforcing unconstitutional policies. (Video: 2022 Karma / Twitter)

Kelly Shaw, a political science professor at Iowa State University, called this “largely unproven” approach to try and change public policy "...a desperate attempt to get one's way through intimidation" and said this typically doesn't work in our political system.

Anyway, since this is Alaska, we can only speculate on how the effort to personally sue school board members will play out, but I guess this new effort means we should be paying extra attention to school board meetings.

Oh, and of course, this is supposedly happening just ahead of the April school board election. Go figure.