The American Civil Liberties Union announced Tuesday that it filed a lawsuit against the Department of Defense’s school system for removing books that reference “race and gender” from its libraries.
President Donald Trump previously signed executive actions banning diversity, equity, and inclusion from the federal government, resulting in the removal of woke gender ideology books from the Department of Defense Education Activity’s schools.
‘I assume the ACLU will now support school choice for military families, so the federal government won’t get to dictate what is or is not in military kids’ education.’
A presidential action titled “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling” argued that the American school system has “indoctrinate[d]” students with “radical, anti-American ideologies while deliberately blocking parental oversight.”
In February, the DOD distributed a memo to parents of children within the school system explaining that the agency was reevaluating library books “potentially related to gender ideology or discriminatory equity ideology topics.”
The DOD and the Department of Education released a joint statement earlier this month announcing the creation of the Title IX Special Investigations Team, tasked with protecting students “from the pernicious effects of gender ideology in school programs and activities.”
The ACLU’s lawsuit, filed on behalf of a dozen students, accuses the DODEA of violating students’ First Amendment rights by removing the materials.
“Since January, their schools have systemically removed books, altered curricula, and canceled events that the government has accused of promoting ‘gender ideology’ or ‘divisive equity ideology,'” the ACLU claimed. “This has included materials about slavery, Native American history, LGBTQ identities and history, and preventing sexual harassment and abuse, as well as portions of the Advanced Placement (AP) Psychology curriculum.”
Natalie Tolley, a parent with three children in DODEA schools, stated that Trump’s executive orders were “a violation of our children’s right to access information that prevents them from learning about their own histories, bodies, and identities.”
“I have three daughters, and they, like all children, deserve access to books that both mirror their own life experiences and that act as windows that expose them to greater diversity,” she continued. “The administration has now made that verboten in DODEA schools.”
Neal McCluskey, the director of the Cato Institute’s Center for Education Freedom, reacted to the lawsuit, stating, “I assume the ACLU will now support school choice for military families, so the federal government won’t get to dictate what is or is not in military kids’ education.”
A spokesperson for the DODEA told the Associated Press that the school system does not comment on ongoing litigation.
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