Letters: Frank LaRose's hissy fit shows pain of embarrassing loss still stings

Note from Opinion editor Amelia Robinson: The following letters to the editor are regarding the Sept. 28 guest column "Leftists shouldn't be able to make kids unsafe at school" by Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose.

LaRose's hissy fit

I know Frank LaRose is smarting from defeat in the ‘special’ election he thought would thwart most Ohioans who wanted the abortion issue to appear on the November ballot, but he seems to have decided doing keggers with Red Bull is the answer to his anemic results.

His rhetoric isn’t just inflammatory (not to mention intellectually dishonest), it’s apocalyptic.

Out of thin air, he conjures unsafe schools beset by “…a leftist educational elite….”

His dog-whistle cadre of woke individuals includes teachers, unions, and school administrators.

LaRose: Radical teachers unions wrong. Kids should not be forced to attend failing schools

LaRose's hissy fit, near as I can tell, has its roots in school board meeting lockdowns, and the kinds of disruptive behavior that some parents (he complains they're being labeled as "domestic terrorists”), who—fueled by right-wing talking points—didn’t just object to mask mandates, teaching factual history, or library books they’d never read—but objected with screaming, obscenity-laced, threatening language.

In some cases, they were armed.

Not your mama’s PTA meeting. Frankly, I’m more concerned by wannabe senators who have hysterics over non-existent boogeymen, who choose to demonize teachers and educators (he wants to close the U.S. Department of Education) to address the issue of school choice and prove he’s sincerely anti-woke.

Chill, Frank. Try chamomile tea—it helps with that woke thing. Candy Canzoneri, Westerville

Is LaRose 'really' calling out parents?

So Frank LaRose is Ohio’s secretary of state and a candidate for the U.S. Senate.

If, as LaRose claims in his Sept. 28 guest columnist plea for... I am not exactly sure what he was pleading for, but he said there are leftists out there ruining America.

I assume LaRose is a rightest out to fix it. He said a lot of things.

He talked about meritocracy and earning what you get, then went on to criticize "government schools" maybe like the one he graduated from?

Letters: After Issue 1 debacle, Frank LaRose should exist left.

So, I assume he sends his kids to private schools to ensure they are better off than him, and safe. It's funny that most parents send their kids to public schools. Is he saying they are not supporting their kids or that they are not protecting their kids from all those leftists teaching them?

Read what he said and think about it, that is if you had any kind of good education to understand what he is saying.

Ron Thornbury, Morrow

More: How to submit a letter to the editor for The Columbus Dispatch

LaRose repeated lie

In his message Frank LaRose stated, “…these groups even persuaded the Biden administration to have the FBI label parents – parents! - as domestic terrorists…” This is a Republican claim with no factual basis that has been stoked by the conservative media. All one must do is Google, “Biden asking the FBI to label parents domestic terrorists” to find numerous articles disclaiming this accusation by LaRose and his Republican colleagues who continue to play loosely with facts.

Mark Corna, Powell\

'Oddly' he never mentioned guns

I was appalled at Secretary of State Frank LaRose's diatribe about "leftist" schools in the Sept. 28 column.

He mentions "leftist," "far left," "radical left," or "liberal" six times.

More: I am pushing 'back against crazy extremists bent on smashing our republic.' You should too

I'd have hoped that LaRose would be representing ALL the people in his state-wide office.

Strangely enough, he never mentions how "leftists" are making kids unsafe. I think what's making them unsafe is a country awash with guns.

I think LaRose's actual target is unions, because they might be more likely to vote for Democrats. It seems to me that we should work on improving public schools, not siphoning their money away for charter schools, whose owners tend to support Republicans.

Jim Hartman, Columbus

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Read between the lines of Frank LaRose's epic hissy fit