Ibañez v. Albemarle County School Board
Description: A group of diverse parents and their children are suing the Albemarle County School Board for enacting discriminatory policies and indoctrinating students in radical ideology. In 2019, the school board enacted a policy that violates students’ civil rights by treating them differently based on race, and by compelling them to affirm and support ideas contrary to their deeply held moral, philosophical, and religious beliefs.
VA students, parents seek to end racially divisive school board policy
The following quote may be attributed to Alliance Defending Freedom Senior Counsel Vincent Wagner regarding a petition for appeal ADF attorneys filed Thursday with the Supreme Court of Virginia in Ibañez v. Albemarle County School Board after the Virginia Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of their case in February. The petition asks the Court to hear the case of a diverse group of parents and their children who are suing the Albemarle County School Board for implementing a discriminatory policy that creates a race-based hostile environment in local schools and violates students’ free-speech rights:
“All students have a right to equal treatment in the classroom, regardless of their race. Public schools hurt kids and infringe that right by imposing demeaning racial stereotypes on them in classroom activities like the Albemarle County School Board has done—and continues to do. The School Board also threatens to punish students who disagree with its radical viewpoint or who simply wish to remain silent instead of speaking the School Board’s message. The Virginia Constitution protects students from conduct like this. We hope the Supreme Court of Virginia agrees and takes this case to allow all students to learn in the best possible environment, free from discriminatory policies like this one.”
Alliance Defending Freedom is an alliance-building, non-profit legal organization committed to protecting religious freedom, free speech, parental rights, and the sanctity of life.
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Featured Coverage
- Leif Le Mahieu: ‘Focus on their skin color’: Parent speaks out against school’s ‘racist’ curriculum (Daily Wire, 2022-04-28)
- Mary Margaret Olohan: Parents accuse Virginia school district of teaching students to ‘discriminate based on race’ (Daily Signal, 2021-12-22)
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ABOUT Vincent Wagner
Vincent Wagner serves as senior counsel with the Center for Parental Rights at Alliance Defending Freedom where he safeguards parents’ rights to direct the upbringing, education, and care of their children. Before joining ADF in 2022, Wagner served the state of Arkansas as deputy solicitor general. Prior to his government service, Wagner was an associate with Baker Botts L.L.P. Wagner earned his B.A., summa cum laude, from Harding University and his J.D. from the University of Texas at Austin. Immediately after law school, he clerked for then-Chief Judge Ed Carnes of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Wagner is admitted to the state bars of Texas, Arkansas, and Virginia, the U.S. Supreme Court, and various lower federal courts.