Photo: YouTube / hxdbzxy / Shutterstock
Debates around Critical Race Theory keep heating up.
By Isaac Serna-Diez — Written on May 17, 2022
A mother in Virginia is suing her 13-year-old son’s middle school over allegations that their curriculum about race and racism has caused a drastic change in her biracial son’s behaviors and perspectives on the society we live in.
Melissa Riley, who went on Fox News’ “Jesse Watters Primetime,” claimed that her son, whose father is African-American, has never had any “racial issues” until the Albemarle School District introduced an “anti-racism” policy.
The mom is now suing her son's school because she says he was taught critical race theory.
Riley claims that her son’s middle school has a Critical Race Theory curriculum that has caused him to put himself in a box and is “finding safety in numbers.”
"We didn’t have issues before. He is in eighth grade," Riley told host Watters. "He's seeing himself just as a Black man. He's seeing things that don’t go his way as racism.
Riley talks about how her son has started accusing her and others of “racism” as a way for him to shy away from his responsibilities, giving an example of a time she asked him to do something for her.
"I asked him to clean the house, [he said] ‘racism,’" she told Watters.
Watters laughed at the absurdity of the claim, asking "You are kidding right? Or are you serious?"
"No. I’m serious," Riley said. "They have totally changed his perspective. They have put him in a box."
Riley said that her teenage son is "using it as an excuse because they have told him that that’s how people see him, as a Black man, that the world is against and [he] sees it as a negative now."
Critical race theory is a concept that Republicans have been grappling with heavily over the last couple of years, claiming that it causes divisiveness among races and teaches people to be “anti-white”.
After confronting the school about the racial conflict and division that her son was experiencing as a result of their new initiative, Riley was told her son could be a "Black spokesman for the Black community" in the school.
"When I told them I didn’t think that that would be appropriate, they told me that if he was uncomfortable with the conversations, he and other children of color could go to a safe place during these conversations," she said, claiming that was “segregation.”
Riley and her son are among the plaintiffs in a lawsuit filed against the Albemarle County School Board in December by the Alliance Defending Freedom (ADF), reported by the New York Post.
The non-profit conservative legal firm’s lawyers allege that the district’s “anti-racism” policy and curriculum violate the Virginia Constitution’s equal protection and free-speech clauses and violate parental rights.
The Albemarle County School Board denied that critical race theory was part of their curriculum.
They did, however, acknowledge that they offer a professional-development program on culturally responsive teaching.
The lawsuit was dismissed by a circuit court judge last month because they believe that the district’s policy was unobjectionable and that there is “nothing inherently evil or wrong” about it, but the ADF lawyers vow to appeal the ruling.
“Certainly, we were disappointed with the result, no question about it,” said Ryan Bangert, senior counsel with the ADF.
“We’re hopeful that the court above on appeal will see things differently, and we’re confident that it will.”
Isaac Serna-Diez is a writer who focuses on entertainment and news, social justice, and politics. Follow him on Twitter here.