Time will tell how the 2021 election results will impact education and other areas of life in Virginia, but for now the unrest continues. Parents have protested at school board meetings and in the media, some in support of the progressive curriculum but many more in opposition. On October 26, the Virginia students themselves chimed in by walking out of class at a total of five Loudoun County high schools in protest of the coverup of two sexual assaults.

Towards the end of last school year, an alleged "gender-fluid" student sexually assaulted two girls in two separate incidents at two different high schools. The initial attack happened in May, when a female student was raped and sodomized in a girls' restroom by a male student wearing a skirt.

The school district transferred the offender to another school and kept the assault under wraps for months as school board members prepared to pass a progressive new transgender policy, which they did in August. (See Education Reporter Online, September and October 2021.)

News of the second assault came to light later, and the student pleaded no contest to the charge of sexual battery in Loudoun County juvenile court on November 15. He was convicted for his original crimes on October 25 and is scheduled to be sentenced in both cases on December 13.

The protest consisted of students walking out of their classrooms and peacefully gathering in front of their high school buildings. The Washington, DC area's ABC News affiliate (7News) broke the story with video of large groups of students milling about.

Students said they were protesting against the coverup of the sexual attacks and in favor of student safety. At Broad Run High School, where the May assault occurred, students reportedly chanted: "Loudoun County protects rapists." Other students could be heard shouting: "Why didn't anybody tell us" and, "This is BS. We demand change."

Months of parental outrage and the general state of unrest in Virginia made education and student safety a huge issue in the gubernatorial race. Glenn Youngkin's strong rhetoric for change is considered a major factor in his successful campaign. Parents, students, and voters will no doubt be watching to see if he follows through.

School board in Fredericksburg gets it right, then wrong

When the Spotsylvania County, Virginia school board, which includes Fredericksburg, ordered school libraries to begin removing "sexually explicit" books in early November, it was a positive development for parents. The order included the requirement that district schools report the number of books that were removed at a special follow-up meeting.

The Free Lance Star reported on November 9 that parental complaints about the indecent and inappropriate reading materials readily available to their children prompted the board's removal order. Books to be discarded included both hard copies on library shelves and digital copies available through the use of a library app. One of the offensive books was 33 Snowfish by Adam Rapp, which parents said contains "mature themes involving sexual abuse, drug addiction, child prostitution, and strong language." Another book they found objectionable was Call Me By Your Name, a story detailing homosexual activities.

The criteria for the first round of books to be taken out of circulation was "sexually explicit," but the board indicated its intention to "refine how material is determined to be ‘objectionable' for a further review of library holdings."

The school board's vote was unanimous, and its action provided an excellent example of how effective a school board can be when its members respect and respond to parental concerns. According to the Star, two of the Spotsylvania board members, Rabih Abuismail and Kirk Twigg, "said they would like to see the removed books burned." Twigg added that he wanted to "see the books before we burn them so we can identify within our community that we are eradicating this bad stuff."

In response to specific parent complaints, Abuismail "was adamant that there be an immediate audit of school libraries." He noted that the inclusion of the offensive books is indicative of how public schools "would rather have our kids reading gay pornography than about Christ."

Board reverses course

But in a sudden and inexplicable about-face, the school board reversed itself on November 16, voting 5 to 2 to overturn its unanimous November 8 decision. Only Kirk Twigg and Rabih Abuismail voted to uphold the original resolution.

Reporting on the board's November 18 reversal, American Greatness.com stated that the initial action to remove the books was prompted by "numerous parents [who] expressed concern about such books being freely available for underaged children to read." At the more recent meeting, "a small handful of counter-protesters" showed up who were "in favor of returning the books, with one of them holding a misspelled sign that said ‘Don't Sensor my Sexuality.'" This begs the question of why sexually explicit books of any kind belong on library shelves that are accessible to young readers.

Evidently, there was lukewarm concession about the original decision, despite the unanimous vote. The Blaze (11-10-21) quoted board member Baron Braswell as observing "that what some people find offensive others may not." One wonders how much pressure may have been applied to the agreeable but less committed members by far left activists.

Following the board's original decision, Spotsylvania County School District Superintendent Scott Baker said: "I would not have thought to do an audit because I have great faith and trust in our librarians. If we find something being missed in a process, then we do refine the process. There was no ill intent here. We don't have all the information."

The superintendent may not have all the information, but presumably the concerned parents who prompted the school board's original decision do, and they may yet prevail. After all, as American Greatness observed: "Public school board meetings have become the epicenter for the latest cultural battle in America, with parents across the country protesting school districts that openly promote books featuring homosexuality and ‘transgenderism,' as well as the teaching of the far-left concept of Critical Race Theory... The [education] issue proved to be a winning one for Republicans in [Virginia's] elections earlier this month, with the GOP sweeping all three statewide offices and flipping the House of Delegates after campaigning to overturn such policies in public schools."

Merrick Garland scandal boils over

Meanwhile, Fox News White House Correspondent Kevin Corke reported on November 12 that the network has obtained a newly released internal National School Boards Association (NSBA) memo showing that Biden Administration officials colluded with NSBA activists as early as September 14 (see page 7) against concerned parents. This collusion was well in advance of U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland's infamous October 4 directive focused on investigating upset parents who were speaking out at school board meetings across the country.

Questions are swirling about "whether or not the White House helped coordinate the [NSBA's September 29] letter that it claimed was the impetus to ramp up the DOJ's effort to target parents or those it believed might be threatening to school board members," Corke reported. "While the attorney general denied any such coordination, new material is a reason for many to question whether that's true," he continued.

The referenced "new material" is the memo signed by then-NSBA president Viola Garcia, which shows that the organization had been "actively engaged with the White House, Department of Justice, and the Department of Homeland Security" since mid-September. The memo indicates that Garland lied under oath when he told Congress in late October that he "did not speak with anyone from the White House." Garland further stated that his DOJ memorandum did not rely on the NSBA's letter to Biden asking for help from the administration, which the association has since removed from its website.

When news of this latest memo broke, Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) posted on his Twitter page: "The Biden Administration coordinated with national school board [sic] activists to go after parents. I said it before: Merrick Garland should resign in disgrace."

Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) tweeted the following on November 17: "Thanks to a whistleblower, we undoubtedly know that the FBI is targeting parents. Merrick Garland has to be brought back to Congress and fully questioned for his role in this soviet-style surveillance of Americans. This will NOT be tolerated."

Washington Post 11/15/21
WJLA.com
The Blaze.com-Virginia School Board order libraries to remove sexually explicit books
Fox News.com/NSBA Coordinated with White House-DOJ
Twitter.com/Rep Andy Biggs AZ

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