These Parents Said NO to Racially Divisive Ideology in Their Children’s Government School Classrooms

Parents are fed up with schools lecturing their children about how racist or victimized they are. Parents send their kids to school to learn how to think critically to equip them to make their way in the world, not how to be strident leftists.

Five families in Virginia recently filed an appeal in a case called Ibañez v. Albemarle County School Board. The group said that the school district is trying to coerce students to agree with racially divisive ideas like “critical race theory” and how to think of themselves as victims and oppressors, among other things.

In 2019, the school district adopted a so-called anti-racism policy — the same old offensive nonsense about “white privilege” and dismantling white dominance, which simply means being on the wrong side of leftist ideology. Parents said this policy is discriminatory.

According to Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), the families’ legal counsel, a teacher told parents in an online forum that “anti-racism” would be woven into all classes in the county.

Concerned parents will not put up with this indoctrination.

A lower court dismissed their case and their concerns in 2022, but the families have appealed to the Virginia Court of Appeal. The court recently heard arguments. From ADF (emphasis added):

In 2019, the board enacted a policy that requires schools to take actions based in critical race theory, a radical ideology that forces students and teachers to view everything and everybody through the lens of race…Parents in the school district are not allowed to opt their children out of classes that teach this ideology, and the school labels any opinion not aligned with the curriculum as “racist” and threatens to punish dissent based on its redefinition of “racism.”

In the post-affirmative action age, it’s surprising that government school districts still have such policies in place. The “anti-racist,” Ibram X. Kendi-style rhetoric is losing credibility, at least among parents appalled by the attempt to racially divide students.

Such policies violate students’ civil rights, the parents said — a serious accusation.

“Every student deserves to be treated equally under the law, regardless of race or religion,” ADF Senior Counsel Vincent Wagner said. “Public schools can’t impose demeaning stereotypes on students based on these characteristics.”

Photo credit: Alliance Defending Freedom