Some Texas college students gained’t be studying about Virginia this 12 months—at the very least not by way of their college’s on-line studying platform.
As first reported by Axios, the Lamar Consolidated Impartial Faculty District, positioned simply outdoors of Houston, eliminated a piece on the Commonwealth of Virginia from its elementary curriculum final fall. The rationale? The state’s flag options the Roman goddess Virtus, who seems with one breast uncovered—a violation of the district’s not too long ago adopted guidelines banning “visible depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity” in class library supplies.
The picture appeared in a digital lesson from PebbleGo Subsequent, an academic platform utilized by the district for grades three by way of 5. Based on paperwork obtained by the Texas Freedom to Learn Mission by way of a Freedom of Info Act request, district officers confirmed the choice to dam entry to the Virginia module primarily based on the flag’s imagery.
The lesson, nonetheless viewable in different districts, consists of each the Virginia state flag and seal, which present Virtus standing over a fallen tyrant. The motto—“Sic semper tyrannis,” or “Thus at all times to tyrants”—stays unchanged, even when the goddess has now been digitally exiled from Texas school rooms.