The Far Right is "Doxxing" More School Officials they Claim are "Groomers"

Right-wing figures like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and Fox News hosts Tucker Carlson and Laura Ingraham have spent the last month boosting the conspiracy theory that anyone opposed to anti-LGBTQ legislation is a “groomer” or a “pedophile.” This has already led to real-life protests, but on far-right forums like Patriots.win and Gab, there’s been a significant spike in ultra-violent rhetoric, with users posting threats against specific teachers, Disney employees, and lawmakers, according to a new report from public-interest research group Advance Democracy, Inc. which shared its findings exclusively with VICE News.

And now, these extremists are taking things a step further: They’re doxxing school officials and calling for their execution. 

In March, a school nurse in Connecticut named Kathleen Cataford posted private details about an 11-year-old LGBTQ student in her care, claiming the child was on puberty blockers. 

The story fed into the growing conservative narrative that schools are sexualizing or “grooming” children. Cataford’s post was picked up by conservative Christian magazine TownHall, which misreported that the school was giving students puberty blockers without their parents’ consent, despite the parents in question praising the school’s response to Cataford’s post.

On April 2, a link to the inaccurate TownHall report was posted on the far-right forum Patriots.win.

Unsurprisingly, on a forum that played a significant role in the planning, incitement, and coordination of the Jan. 6 Capitol riot, the post prompted outrage—and calls for violence. 

“This stuff isn’t going to change at this point until there’s body bags,” one member wrote. “Straight to the woodchipper for them,” another replied. 

“Fuck a woodchipper,” another wrote in response. “If some teacher did that to my kid, I’m going to go straight to them and literally beat them to an inch of their life.”

But then things escalated. An account called ProudKoreanAmerican clearly felt that posting threats online was just not enough, and posted the physical address of the superintendent of Cataford’s school district, Leslie Torres-Rodriguez, on five separate occasions. The account then called for her execution.

“The superintendent is supporting leftist grooming in her schools. She needs to be executed by our judicial system,” ProudAmericanKorean wrote.

The false allegations have resulted in myriad hostile, vulgar, and threatening emails and phone calls to officials in the Hartford Public Schools District, a spokesperson told VICE News.