Last Updated on December 30, 2021
A group of parents and students in Albemarle County, Virginia are suing their local public school district over an “anti-racism” lesson policy that they say is pushing critical race theory on kids, against their parent’s wishes and in violation of Virginia’s Constitution.
The lawsuit, filed when the district closed for Christmas break, asserts that the so-called “anti-racism” policy adopted by Albemarle County Public Schools is being used to indoctrinate kids with critical race theory, in violation of their parent’s wishes and beliefs.
Lessons developing from the policy focus on topics like the “denial of white privilege” and “passive racism,” mimicking the framework of far-left, anti-white Critical Race Theory.
Plaintiffs in the case are hoping a judge will order a stop to the radical lessons, arguing that they violate a clause in Virginia’s Constitution on the “Freedom of Speech Through Viewpoint Discrimination and Freedom from Government Discrimination.”
Additionally, Virginia parents have a constitutional right to influence the education of their children in public schools, something that parents say many left-wing districts seem to have forgotten or outright denied as Critical Race Theory has taken off.
“This violates not just the student’s rights to equal protection but it also violates the parent’s rights to control the education and upbringing of their kids and not have their own public school system undermine and contradict these important values,” Ryan Bangert, an attorney representing the plaintiffs with the Alliance Defending Freedom told local media.
As extensively reported on by National File, the use of critical race theory in schools has become a major flashpoint in American politics, largely coalescing around a battle that began in Virginia in 2020, as school districts in deep blue Northern Virginia counties, most notably Loudoun, began rolling out the far-left curriculum, using it on students, staff, and faculty alike, all the while refusing to allow parental input.
During the 2021 gubernatorial race, Democrat Terry McAuliffe claimed on a debate stage against Republican Glenn Youngkin that parents don’t have the right to influence their children’s education, and even backed a decision to place pornographic, gay books in a school library, a set of statements that have been credited with sealing his defeat and shoring up Virginia’s recent red wave.
Though considerably less populated than the better-known Loudoun, Albemarle County, located outside the far-left City of Charlottesville has become a flashpoint of its own in recent years, as population growth and several rounds of refugee drop-offs have led to a demographic makeover, turning a once red and purple county a dark shade of blue on electoral maps.
Having proximity to the University of Virginia, Albemarle County schools have been heavily influenced by the left in recent years, even employing former Charlottesville Vice Mayor Wes Bellamy, a left-wing race activist who advocated for the rape of women over Twitter and helped kick off efforts to remove the city’s historic statues.
