The Loudoun County school system has become a prominent example of how critical race theory, so-called anti-racism, and what many parents consider a radical transgender agenda are taking hold in public schools across the nation.

Parents in an affluent Virginia county are speaking out against their school system’s online “portal” that allows students to anonymously report on each other for exhibiting racial or sexual bias.

Daniel Suhr, a lawyer representing parents in a lawsuit against the Loudoun County school system, told The Daily Signal that the “so-called bias incident response system” is in direct violation of Americans’ free speech rights.

“Rather than creating a diverse community where students are welcomed,” Suhr said, “Loudoun is saying to students, ‘If you come from a particular background or if you come to school with particular views and values, you’re not welcome here. In fact, if you share those views and values with your classmates, we will shut you down.’”

“And that violates two promises of the Constitution: the promise all of us—including students—have to free speech and security, in the 14th Amendment, that all of us will receive equal treatment under the law regardless of our race,” the parents’ lawyer added.

Five parents filed a lawsuit June 2 against the Loudoun County School Board for violating the free speech rights of students.

“We’ve seen these biased reporting systems in higher ed before, but they’ve never been prevalent on the K-12 level. I think Loudoun is one of the first places in the country where children as young as sixth grade are subject to a reporting system like this,” Suhr said.

Suhr is a senior attorney at Liberty Justice Center, which represents the parents in the lawsuit against the school board. The center says it works to “to protect students, families, entrepreneurs and other Americans whose fundamental constitutional rights have been violated.”

Loudoun County Public Schools set up the “portal,” which Liberty Justice Center says is technically a Google form. Administrators implemented the reporting system this spring in the county’s middle schools and high schools.

To use the online system, any student may log in with a student account. The format does not require a name to complete a report; complaints are reviewed initially by a “supervisor of equity,” then by “equity ambassadors,” according to Liberty Justice Center. The school system has not said how widely the reports will be circulated.

Parents filed the lawsuit against the Loudoun County School Board shortly before the board decided to appeal a judge’s June 8 order to reinstate an elementary school gym teacher suspended by the school system for saying he wouldn’t call children who “identify” as transgender by their “preferred” names or pronouns.

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