Virginia Legislature Advances Bill That Prevents Schools From Teaching Students January 6 Was Peaceful

Lawmakers in Virginia have passed a bill that would prevent schools from teaching students that the January 6 riot was a peaceful protest or suggesting that there was widespread fraud in the 2020 election.This week, Virginia’s General Assembly passed House Bill 333, which lays out certain requirements for how schools teach students about the events of January 6.The legislation does not require schools to teach about January 6, but prohibits teachers from portraying the day as a peaceful protest. Instead, it says schools must teach that January 6 was an “unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions.” It also says that teachers may not “present as credible” the claim that there was widespread voter fraud in the 2020 election. The bill comes as the Trump White House published a webpage about January 6 that alleges Democrats “masterfully reversed reality after January 6, branding peaceful patriotic protesters as ‘insurrectionists’ and framing the event as a violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump.”In a post on X, a delegate who sponsored the bill, Dan Helmer, wrote, “Education should inform, not indoctrinate.”A Republican lawmaker who opposed the bill, Tom Garrett, said in a floor speech last month that the legislation “tells us what we’re not allowed to say, and it tells us what we must say,” which he said is “evil.”Virginia’s Senate passed the bill last month, and it now heads to Governor Abigail Spanberger’s desk. However, it is not clear whether she will sign it. The legislation appears to be the first in the country that would prevent schools from teaching that January 6 was a peaceful protest. Lawmakers in New York are considering a bill that would require schools to teach students about the events of January 6, but would leave the specifics of the instruction up to the local school boards. Last year, the then-Oklahoma state superintendent, Ryan Walters, pushed a new social studies curriculum that would have required high school students to identify “discrepancies” in the 2020 election. However, that curriculum was permanently blocked by the state’s supreme court.

Virginia Legislature Advances Bill That Prevents Schools From Teaching Students January 6 Was Peaceful

Virginia Legislature Advances Bill That Prevents Schools From Teaching Students January 6 Was Peaceful

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