Virginia Dems pass bill mandating January 6 taught as insurrection

Virginia lawmakers passed a bill Wednesday that requires public schools to describe the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol as a violent attack, and it specifically prohibits teachers from portraying it as a peaceful protest.

Virginia Democrats have quickly advanced a series of controversial bills since Gov. Abigail Spanberger was elected in November and their ranks have exploded in the House of Representatives, including an attempt to strip all Republican congressmen except Rep. Morgan Griffith from their seats to give a 10-1 Democratic majority in the state’s congressional delegation. Today, they are taking steps to shape how the story of January 6 is taught to children.

HB 333, authored by Delegate Dan I. Helmer of Fairfax, prohibits public school curricula from depicting the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the Capitol as a peaceful protest or presenting as credible claims that widespread voter fraud altered the 2020 presidential results.

The bill specifically “prohibits” instructions describing the insurrection as peaceful or suggesting there was “extensive voter fraud” that could have changed the outcome of the election. However, it does not provide for any explicit criminal sanctions in the event of violation.

Delegate Dan I. Helmer, D-Fairfax, left, and Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones. (Craig Hudson/Getty Images)

In a statement to the Virginia Mercury about the bill, Helmer said there was “real concern” that President Donald Trump is “attempting to rewrite the history of January 6, which is borne out by the fact that there is a WhiteHouse.gov site that presents a false history.”

Fox News Digital has reached out to Virginia Republicans for comment.

The Virginia Assembly of Independent Baptists also came out against the bill, with executive director Michael Huffman testifying before a state Senate committee that “true education prepares children for life, not political agendas, and to glorify or impose…the dark day only serves short-sighted partisanship, not the future of our children,” according to the Hampton Roads PBS affiliate.

Helmer, an Iraq War veteran and staunch gun control advocate, was first elected by flipping what was Fairfax County’s last Republican district along its border with Prince William County in 2020.

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Helmer also announced a congressional bid in one of the newly redrawn districts, nicknamed the “lobster” or “scorpion” by critics because it stretches from the Potomac River in Arlington southwest before splitting into two “claws” to extend toward the West Virginia line near Rawley Springs. The other extends toward Goochland and Powhatan, effectively bringing together a swath of Republican-leaning towns and pitting them against a small but densely populated Democratic stronghold.

One of his ads in a 2018 congressional campaign compared Trump to Osama bin Laden, and in it he claimed that the “greatest threat to democracy” once lived “in a cave” but now “he lives in the White House.”

He recused himself from redistricting, according to the New York Times, but is considered a key ally of House Speaker Don Scott, a Portsmouth Democrat who organized the effort in the lower chamber.

Trump supporters invade the US Capitol on January 6, 2021. (Eric Lee/Getty Images)

Although the new map has yet to win voter approval in the April special election, Helmer has at least one Democratic challenger in what would be a district heavily favored by Democrats.

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Prosecutor JP Cooney, former deputy to special counsel Jack Smith in his investigation of Trump, told the New York Times that the tycoon was not sufficiently “controlled”.[ed]” by Congress and that the DHS-involved shooting of Alex Pretti solidified its decision.

Alec Schemmel of Fox News Digital contributed to this report.

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