Students sue Defense Department over book bans in military schools

The American Civil Liberties Union along with a group of military students and family members sued the Defense Department on Tuesday over book bans and curriculum changes instituted in recent weeks to comply with President Donald Trump’s efforts to root out diversity and equity programs within federal agencies.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Eastern District of Virginia, states that moves by Department of Defense Education Activity leaders have unnecessarily harmed learning opportunities for students. The case involves 12 students from six families who attend military-run schools in Virginia, Kentucky, Italy and Japan.

“Learning is a sacred and foundational right that is now being limited for students in DoDEA schools,” said Natalie Tolley, one of the plaintiff parents in the lawsuit.

“The implementation of these executive orders, without any due process or parental or professional input, is a violation of our children’s right to access information that prevents them from learning about their own histories, bodies, and identities.”

Since January, the department’s schools system — which encompasses 161 schools across 11 countries, including multiple sites in the United States — has begun removing books and changing classroom curricula related to “gender ideology” or “divisive equity ideology.”

Officials from the ACLU said that has included banning some texts about slavery, Native American history, LGBTQ+ history and sexual harassment prevention.

“These schools are some of the most diverse and high achieving in the nation, making it particularly insulting to strip their shelves of diverse books and erase women, LGBTQ people and people of color from the curriculum to serve a political goal,” said Emerson Sykes, senior staff attorney with the ACLU, in a statement.

“Our clients deserve better, and the First Amendment demands it.”

Defense Department officials have not yet publicly commented on the lawsuit. Leaders have defended similar moves — such as banning cultural awareness months and eliminating diversity and inclusion offices — as necessary to remove distractions and political ideology from military operations.

The lawsuit asks for a full revocation of the administration’s executive orders and reinstatement of all books, classroom materials and course guidelines to the Defense Department schools.

“The government can’t scrub references to race and gender from public school libraries and classrooms just because the Trump administration doesn’t like certain viewpoints on those topics,” said Matt Callahan, senior supervising attorney at the ACLU of Virginia.

Last week, hundreds of students at DoDEA schools staged walkouts over the controversial changes. Department leaders are still considering disciplinary action against individuals involved in those protests.