Virginia legislature approves bill for schools to define Jan. 6 riot as ‘violent attack’

Virginia’s legislature has passed a bill that would define schools’ curriculum on the Jan. 6, 2021, riots, forbidding the infamous event at the U.S. Capitol from being described as a “peaceful protest.”

If schools teach students about the attack, they must not “describe, portray, or present as credible a description or portrayal of the actions precipitating or involved in the events of the January 6, 2021, insurrection as peaceful protest.”

They would also have to abide by specific framing that bars saying that there was “extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election.” 

Instead, school instruction should describe the insurrection as an “unprecedented, violent attack on United States democratic institutions, infrastructure, and representatives for the purpose of overturning the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

“The White House webpage says January 6 was a peaceful protest, and people who instigated it were the police and National Guard,” said the bill’s sponsor, Democratic Del. Dan Helmer. “This is a preventative measure against a massive disinformation campaign on the part of the White House.”

The Trump White House says Democrats falsely accused “peaceful patriotic protesters” of being “insurrectionists” and that the party framed the event as a “violent coup attempt orchestrated by Trump.” 

“In truth, it was the Democrats who staged the real insurrection by certifying a fraud-ridden election, ignoring widespread irregularities, and weaponizing federal agencies to hunt down dissenters, all while [then-Speaker Nancy] Pelosi’s own security lapses invited the chaos they later exploited to seize and consolidate power. This gaslighting narrative allowed them to persecute innocent Americans, silence opposition, and distract from their own role in undermining democracy,” the White House page reads.

Both the state Senate and House approved the proposal, mostly along party lines, and the first-of-its-kind legislation would immediately take effect with Gov. Abigail Spanberger’s signature.

When she was in Congress, Ms. Spanberger, a Democrat, said that “Jan. 6 marked the continuation of a trend of falsehoods — and tragically, the lies that spawned this act of insurrection are still present in American politics.”