A Virginia judge has dismissed a lawsuit filed by families seeking to block their local school district’s “anti-racist” policy that labels white, Christian students as a part of an oppressive “dominant culture.”
The lawsuit was brought by five families against the public school system of Albemarle County, Virginia. The school district in 2019 adopted an “Anti-Racism Policy,” which the suing families said is based on critical race theory (CRT) and promotes racial stereotypes and race-based discrimination.
The families pointed to a curriculum taught to eighth graders in 2019. Created under the “anti-racist” policy, the curriculum defines the term “racism” as “the marginalization and/or oppression of people of color based on a socially constructed racial hierarchy that privileges white people.” It also tells students that they may consciously or unconsciously “uphold aspects of white supremacy, white-dominant culture, and unequal institutions and society” if they’re not actively “anti-racist.”
The Albemarle curriculum further claims that in the United States, the “dominant culture” is that of “people who are white, middle class, Christian, and cisgender.” People of the “dominant culture” supposedly “chose the game and the rules” so that they “won the game each time.”
“In short, the program instructs white students that if they fail to adopt and forcefully advance a radical ideological political program, they are racist, regardless of whether they individually harbor any racial animus or bias,” the families argued.
Although the families alleged that Albemarle “harms and denigrates everyone” in the community by pushing a CRT-based view of race and society, Circuit Judge Claude Worrell tossed the case, saying that they failed to show anyone has been harmed by the district’s policy.
During the April 22 hearing, Worrell repeatedly questioned whether the families have a standing to sue. When the attorney argued that the implementation of the policy is affecting students’ lives, Worrell said this is what education does.
Worrell also said that it’s impossible for schools to create individualized education plans to make sure all students feel comfortable in class. “I think it happens during education that certain people are made to feel uncomfortable about history and their place in it,” he told the families.
The families, who are all Christian but diverse in backgrounds and heritage, are represented by conservative Christian legal group Alliance Defending Freedom. Dave Cortman, an attorney with the ADF, said the ruling is disappointing but the fight will go on.
“Every student deserves to be treated equally under the law, regardless of their race, ethnicity, or religion,” Cortman said. “Public schools cannot attack or demean students based on these, or any other, characteristics. We look forward to continuing to represent these parents and students on appeal.”
