Photo Courtesy of Alliance Defending Freedom
White Virginia mom, Melissa Riley, said she plans to sue the school board, claiming that Critical Race Theory made her biracial son identify as “just a Black man.”
According to reports, Riley and her son are among several other plaintiffs who filed a lawsuit against the Albemarle County School Board via a conservative legal firm called the Alliance Defending Freedom.
ADF attorneys alleged that the district’s anti-racism policy and curriculum violated the Virginia Constitution’s free-speech and equal protection clauses and violated parental rights.
In aFox News interview that aired on May 16, Riley told host Jesse Watters that the race-based lessons changed her son. He currently attends Henley Middle School in Crozet, where, she said, he has been dealing with “racial issues.”
“We didn’t have any issues before. He is in 8th grade [and] they introduced this critical program. Now he is having racial issues that were not there before,” Riley said. “He is seeing himself just as a Black man. He is seeing things that don’t go his way as racism. He is finding safety in numbers now.”
CRT explores how racism shaped and continues to shape American society. The concept has been under attack across the U.S. in recent years, as many have claimed that it makes people who refuse to discuss racial topics “uncomfortable.”
Riley added that she asked her son to do chores like cleaning the house, and he allegedly responded, saying her requests were due to racism.
“[CRT] has totally changed his perspective. It put him in a box. He’s using [racism] as an excuse [for not doing his chores] because [his school] has told him that that’s how people see him–as a Black man that the world is against.”
In another report, the Virginia mother explained that her son looked more like a Pacific islander than anything else, even though he is actually half Black and half White.
“He looks Hawaiian,” she said. “He’s beautiful.”
In addition, according to her, he would blame everything on racism, from getting a bad grade in school to getting rejected by a girl.
As a result, she took it upon herself to speak to Henley Middle School officials and discovered that a program about race was being introduced to the institution.
“The school told me that [my son] could be a Black spokesperson for the Black community,” she said. “When I told them I don’t think 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. That is segregation.”
Watters asked Riley what her son’s father, an African American man, thought about the program, and she responded by saying she was a single mother.
“I’m a single mom, so I’m teaching him everything.”