Some parents no longer arrive at school board meetings or community rallies with the expectation of civil debate. Instead, they come braced for harassment, knowing that some groups will lie in wait to disrupt, intimidate, and silence speech. At a Sep. 10 school board meeting in Frederick, Maryland, counter-protesters proved that speech they don’t agree with should not be heard.
No punches were thrown, but the left-leaning protesters engaged in aggressive intimidation. They screamed into the ears of the elderly attendees and used megaphones and homemade noise-makers to drown out the speech of others. Peaceful attendees repeatedly moved away, attempting to avoid confrontation. At one point, a small group led by Fr. Matt, a local priest, quietly broke away to pray the rosary inside a nearby police precinct — just steps from the school board building.
The Maryland Bay News described the masked protesters as behaving in an “Antifa-style” manner. Some carried red banners labeled with a logo reading “Democratic Socialists of America.” Tone-deaf and unrestrained, they flooded the pavement only hours after Charlie Kirk’s assassination — behavior chillingly callous, given that he had been brutally murdered in public view only hours before. The video showing the masked protesters can be viewed here.
For those unfamiliar with Maryland politics, Frederick has become “ground zero” in the transgender debate, according to Tom Neumark, founder of Better Maryland Schools. The group advocates for sensible curricula and parental engagement and consent in life-altering decisions. Yet the Maryland State Department of Education supports teachers “affirming gender” (that is, convincing children that they are members of the opposite sex) at school without parental consent.
Neumark says his rallies are often met with threats and intimidation from the left.
What you'll see in the video is people are people in black masks wearing sunglasses to cover their faces. They wore black clothing, and they drowned our voices. There were many of them and not many of us. They bragged about it later, saying they made it so our speakers really couldn't be heard.
When we moved to the steps to speak, they took a position higher than ours. They were looking down at us, yelling at a woman who is a mom, who was asking for better algebra scores, asking that her kid not be transitioned at school without parental permission.
We weren’t asking for anything crazy. We had an hour of speakers planned but we maybe got 20 minutes. We were not allowed to speak. The speaker systems we brought were just not powerful enough to overcome that.
The Maryland Bay News reported,
The coordinated mob stormed the event outside the Frederick County Board of Education, banging drums, invading personal space with megaphones, and screaming insults like “Shut up, black b----” and “Die, Nazi, die.” Their hate escalated further when they targeted elected officials, shouting vulgarities at Frederick County School Board members Colt Black and Jaime Brennan.
Let’s be clear: this wasn’t protest. This was targeted intimidation, designed to silence parents and candidates demanding accountability in our schools.
Late Tuesday evening, I spoke with Black and Brennan. They represent two of the three conservatives on the seven-person school board. Brennan reported that once the counter-protesters identified them as opposing board members, things escalated.
Brennan, a former Frederick County Moms for Liberty activist, said once counter-protesters recognized her, they became even more aggressive.
They walked alongside us, screaming obscenities. One of them was inches from my ear, banging a drum, yelling into a megaphone.
She also shared that the local police were aware of the rally, but no officer was ever seen. When asked about their absence, she answered:
It is typical for Frederick City. There is a police station within walking distance. It is total waste of time to expect they would show up.
Unfortunately, the rally was an all too typical example of the malignancy the left has become in American civic life — a force metastasizing its way through culture and institutions alike for decades. Societal malignancies can also weaken or even kill the organs of civil discourse — debate, the right to petition, the right to assemble. In April 2025, Charlie Kirk warned of an “assassination culture” spreading on the left, citing surveys showing how some progressives openly justify political killings.
What should have been a debate over education policy became a showcase of mob coercion. And it was not an anomaly. The left no longer argues. It now throws tantrums – –dangerous, orchestrated, and increasingly violent.
The chilling effect of this behavior is real. Students self-censor. Parents disengage. Fear overcomes civic engagement. It distorts the public square. Institutions look the other way, police fail to intervene, and universities hesitate to condemn celebratory remarks about assassination. Silence only emboldens the tantrums.
Worse still is the gaslighting from complicit, partisan media lapdogs and online gatekeepers. Algorithmic wizardry obscures the truth. It is the left — not the right — that intimidates, burns communities, and clashes with law enforcement, all while distorting the facts, insisting that the public accept the left’s distorted version of events. And too often the left is rewarded with leniency rather than justice.
Meanwhile, the statistics that might validate these lived experiences rarely see daylight. The very institutions tasked with collecting and reporting them are captured and riddled with bias. Try finding a single online source or mainstream media outlet willing to report anything other than the narrative that right-wing supremacists are the dominant source of political violence in America. It is the left-wing mobs, not the right-wing parents, who are silencing dissent in schoolyards.
However, even in light of recent events, free speech in this country is still a critical constitutional right. Whether hate-filled or not, the Frederick counter-protesters were exercising constitutional speech.
Board member Colt Black, a self-proclaimed “First Amendment absolutist,” illustrated the point:
At one point, one of the young, black-masked men yelled, “Free speech” in my face. I looked at him and said, “I support your right to free speech. You can absolutely say what you want.” He stopped and thanked me and then went back to screaming.
I find a lot of their antics ridiculous but amusing, but certainly within their rights. But we cannot cower, because when we do, they will have won.
Just as conservative folks have the right to yell or scream profanity, make signs, or gesture; the people on the left have the same rights. I would hate to live in a country that would stifle that.
Black acknowledged their rights but drew the line at violence:
You have the right to speak freely, but it also doesn’t mean someone won’t try to quell your free speech with the Second Amendment. And that is where this went with Charlie Kirk. People should not be killed for their ideas.
It is no doubt true that we must courageously defend our closely held beliefs and allow others to voice theirs. However, in the words of Friedrich W. Nietzsche, we would do well to remember:
Beware that, when fighting monsters, you yourself do not become a monster ... for when you gaze long into the abyss. The abyss gazes also into you.
Image via Pxhere.