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Parents Versus Tyranny in Virginia Schools

Parents Versus Tyranny in Virginia Schools

Virginia once took pride in her sons, especially Thomas Jefferson and James Madison. The first was, of course, the main author of the Declaration of Independence, and Madison is known as the Father of the Constitution.

Apparently, that pride now lies as still in the grave as those Founding Fathers.

Suparna Dutta, a mother, an engineer, and an immigrant from India, had helped revise Virginia’s public education standards for history and social science. During the drafting process, Dutta dared to state at a public meeting of the Virginia Board of Education that “The Declaration and the Constitution … are remarkable documents.” She also condemned socialism as producing “dependency and depression.”

The reaction was swift and brutal. Democrats, including Anne Holton, wife of Virginia’s former governor and current U.S. Senator Tim Kaine, raised the cry against Dutta. Some of them had already taken their outrage to the floor of the Virginia Senate, where they had Dutta removed from the Board, declaring that she had connections to “very extreme and right-wing white supremacist groups.”

Did I mention that Suparna Dutta hails from India and isn’t white?

In the recent past, other such left-wingers have similarly accused Winsome Sears—a Republican and a black woman who is Virginia’s lieutenant governor—of being a “black mouth” for white supremacy.

In the last few years, Virginia has served as the stage for a slew of embarrassments in the field of education. In 2021, Loudoun County educators and the school board tried to cover up sex crimes committed against a ninth-grader in a restroom by a “gender-fluid” boy wearing a skirt. Last year, other Loudoun County parents organized protests against the teaching of critical race theory in the classroom, demanding “an end to the racist and divisive ideologies being infused into the government schools.”

Neighboring Fairfax County parents, most of them Asian, were outraged when they discovered that their kids were never informed they received prestigious National Merit awards. The information was bizarrely suppressed by their high school in the name of equity. Fairfax County schools have also “likely violated federal laws over parental rights by hiding the curriculum content from parents” of certain social-emotional learning programs, including a lesson that teaches kids about white privilege.

This contempt for parental involvement in schools was spotlighted during the debate in the 2021 Virginia governor’s race. Democrat candidate Terry McAuliffe, who was the state’s governor from 2014 to 2018, declared, “I don’t think parents should be telling schools what they should teach.” That remark raised the hackles of parents in both political parties and probably caused McAuliffe to lose the election to Glenn Youngkin, who advocated for greater parental involvement in the schools.

The results of these shenanigans became painfully clear when the Center for Education Reform released its 2022 Parent Power Index, which evaluates states on how well they incorporate parents into public education and whether they put students first. Virginia ranked a dismal 45 of 51 (including Washington D.C.).

No surprises there.

But other factors deserve mention. U.S. census data rates Loudoun as the wealthiest county by household income in the United States. Fairfax County is number five on this list. Both are bedroom suburbs of Washington D.C., which reveals where the deep pockets reside in our country. Both counties have many residents who are Virginians in name only, who are products of progressive universities, and who were lured here by federal dollars and government jobs.

The contempt shown by these northern Virginia educators, politicians, and left-wing parents for those seeking a say-so in their children’s education is abominable. The treatment meted out to Suparna Dutta, who loves her adopted country, should embarrass them. The attempted cover-up of a sexual assault, apparently in the name of political correctness, should have landed some folks in a cell.

Designed by George Wythe, another Founding Father, Virginia’s state seal depicts a woman meant to embody virtue holding a spear in one hand and a sword in the other. Her left foot is planted on a figure representing tyranny, fixing this enemy firmly to the ground. The Latin motto reads, “Sic semper tyrannis” or “Thus always to tyrants.”

Virginia parents fighting for the rights of their children are the living embodiment of that battle cry.

Image credit: RawPixel-Flickr, CC0 1.0

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Jeff Minick
Jeff Minick
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  • Avatar
    Brian
    March 28, 2023, 11:25 pm

    What in the world is going on in VA? Oh, wait… never mind. Liberalism / Wokeism is what is going on in VA.

    A female student's sexual assault covered-up in the name of protecting Woke Gender Politics? Well, of course they tried covering it up – it damaged the leftist agenda and did NOTHING to support their narrative. That girl suffered because of EXACTLY what logical thinking people warned then would happen. THIS could have been prevented but it wasn't and then, to make matters worse, someone tried to brush it under the rug. THEY. SHOULD. GO. TO. JAIL. for covering up a crime.

    Imagine if it had been a trans student that was a assaulted. The looney leftists would be in the streets, en masse, screaming for justice for that person – and RIGHTFULLY SO. But, because the perpetrator was trans, it changed everything.

    Then we have Asian students not receiving the hard-earned recognition they deserve for academic achievement? Why? Because their well-deserved success might make another student feel "less than"? TOUGH. If you want the award and recognition, then WORK for it. They diminished the Asian students by their actions. Where is the justice for them? The actions were blatantly RACIST.

    I hope the parents of that poor young lady and those students denied their deserved recognition sue anyone and everyone they can. The only thing that will cause any type of pause for these deranged people in these kinds of situations is hitting the almighty wallet of those that perpetrate such stupidity.

    Heaven help us because logic and common sense have gone out the window.

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  • Avatar
    11bravo
    March 29, 2023, 1:18 am

    What an unserious article. Pointing out facts we already know is too easy. Up your game! What has changed?
    Of course they should be ashamed – but socialists have no shame! They are trying to fundamentally chang our country.

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  • Avatar
    gwbnyc
    April 1, 2023, 3:22 am

    "This contempt for parental involvement in schools was spotlighted during the debate in the 2021 Virginia governor’s race."

    -it is a move to further separate child from parent and place the child further within the state- a basic Marxist bullet point.

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