Military families are suing the Department of Defense for allegedly whitewashing curriculum at schools on military bases.
The lawsuit — which accuses DOD schools of banning diverse books, cultural heritage months and student protests — comes as the Trump administration targets mentions of diversity and gender in education.
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WATCH HERE“Censorship is always the wrong choice, and it’s certainly the wrong choice here,” ACLU of Virginia senior supervising attorney Matt Callahan said.
Callahan is helping six military families sue the Department of Defense and Secretary Pete Hegseth for allegedly violating their children’s First Amendment rights.
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SIGN UP The students attend schools on U.S. military bases around the world. The schools are accused of banning books like “To Kill a Mockingbird,” “Fahrenheit 451,” “Kite Runner,” “Well-Read Black Girl” and “The Antiracist Kid.”
In the lawsuit, the ACLU also lists other books allegedly under review by DOD for a possible ban. Those include a biography of Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, a picture book about “loving the skin you’re in” and Vice President JD Vance’s memoir “Hillbilly Elegy.”
“When you’re trying to control people’s access to information and the society, I think any books about dissent, about the struggle for liberation, can be a threat,” Callahan said.
“We think this is a really important struggle to make sure students get exposed to those ideas, things that they might not have considered on their own, experiences that aren’t their own,” he said,
According to the lawsuit, schools on military bases also allegedly have been getting rid of lessons on slavery, Native American history, LGBTQ identities, and how to prevent sexually transmitted diseases, sexual harassment and abuse.
“By censoring the health information that reaches students in class, the government isn’t changing any of the aspects of life,” Callahan said. “They’re just making students less prepared for it.”
In addition, the lawsuit accuses DOD school administrators of going through high school yearbooks to make sure they don’t have any references to gender ideology.
The lawsuit comes about three months after President Donald Trump signed an executive order called “Ending Radical Indoctrination in K-12 Schooling.”
DOD said it doesn’t comment on pending litigation.
