Virginia mom says biracial son was brainwashed by critical race theory lessons and 'totally changed'

A Virginia mom has taken her 13-year-old son's middle school to court over anti-racism policy and curriculum she claims are indoctrinating him with critical race theory.

Melissa Riley, a single mom in the Charlottesville area, says that her biracial son's views on race and his self-image have been warped since the Albemarle School District adopted a policy intent on eliminating "all forms of racism" from the school district. She claims that the new anti-racist curriculum adopted at Henley Middle School has "totally changed his perspective" in a harmful way, emphasizing racial conflict and division.

"We didn’t have issues before. He is in eighth grade," Riley told Fox News host Jesse Waters on "Jesse Watters Primetime" Monday. "He's seeing himself just as a black man. He's seeing things that don’t go his way as racism. And he is finding safety in numbers now."

"I asked him to clean the house, [he said] 'racism!'" Riley said.

She says ever since the school started teaching elements of critical race theory, her son has come to see himself first and foremost as a black man with an extensive system of white privilege in America stacked against him.

"They have totally changed his perspective. They have put him in a box," she added.

Riley said her son is "using it as an excuse because they have told him that that’s how people see him, as a black man that the world is against, and [he] sees it as a negative now."

A direct appeal to the school resulted in officials dismissing her concerns and telling her that her son could be a "black spokesman for the black community."

"When I told them I didn’t think that that would be appropriate, they told me that if he was uncomfortable with the conversations, he and other children of color could go to a safe place during these conversations," she told Watters. "And that’s segregation."

Riley and her son, along with several other parents and students, are plaintiffs in a lawsuit the Alliance Defending Freedom brought against the Albemarle County School Board in December. ADF attorneys argue that the school district's anti-racism policies are "discriminatory" and that the school is "indoctrinating students in radical ideology."

The lawsuit was dismissed last month by Albemarle Circuit Judge Claude Worrell II, who said there was no proof that anyone had been harmed by the school district's policy, National Review reported.

ADF counsel Ryan Bangert disagreed with the court's finding. He told Fox News that the school is teaching divisive topics and asserted that the civil rights of students are being violated by lessons that promote "bigotry."

"They don’t deny what they are teaching. They simply think it’s fine. They think it’s okay. But it’s not okay. It’s never okay. It’s never right for a school to teach kids that they are determined by their race. It’s never okay for a school to tell kids that bigotry should be fought with bigotry and racism should be fought by doubling down on racism. Those things are not okay," Banger said. "They’re a violation of students’ civil rights."

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