Virginia Legislature Passes Bill Banning Public Schools From Teaching January 6 Was a ‘Peaceful Protest’

AP Photo/Julio Cortez, File

The Virginia legislature has passed a bill that prohibits the state’s public schools from teaching that the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the U.S. Capitol was a “peaceful protest” or that there was “extensive election fraud” in the 2020 presidential election.

Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger (D) is expected to sign the bill that was passed on party-line votes by Democratic majorities in the state House of Delegates and Senate and is believed to be the first of its kind in the U.S., according to a report by The Washington Post.

The text of the bill, HB333, adds new language to the Virginia statutes that requires any local school board that imposes new restrictions on “[a]ny program of instruction on or relating to the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol” and “any accompanying curriculum or instructional materials, or any instruction provided by a teacher as a part of any program of instruction.”

Any school that teaches about the events of Jan. 6, 2021 is required by HB333 to “[d]escribe the January 6, 2021, insurrection at the United States Capitol 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 new statutory language also says that schools shall 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” or “state, suggest, or present as credible a statement or suggestion that there was extensive election fraud that could have changed or actually changed the results of the 2020 presidential election.”

The bill’s sponsor, Virginia Del. Dan Helmer, a Democrat representing Fairfax, characterized HB333 a response to a website launched by the White House on Jan. 6, 2026 that blamed Democrats and Capitol police for the violence, accused then-Vice President Mike Pence of “cowardice” and “sabotage,” and claimed no wrongdoing by President Donald Trump.

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

Republican legislators criticized HB333 as “state-sponsored mind control,” reported the Post, adding that the bill “raises complicated questions about how far government should go in dictating how historical events are portrayed, particularly in an era when even basic facts are increasingly treated as matters of partisan debate.”

Helmer rejected claims by Republicans that this was an effort to ban speech and argued it was instead about “establishing guidelines.”

“All this does is put guardrails on to ensure public education in Virginia can’t lie to our kids,” he told the Post.

Last year, Oklahoma attempted to require its schools to teach debunked conspiracy theories about fraud in the 2020 election, but were stymied by the state’s supreme court.

To be clear, state and federal judges in over 60 lawsuits, many of whom were appointed by Republican governors and presidents — some even by Trump himself — rejected claims that fraud affected the results of the 2020 election, as did dozens of former Trump administration officials and advisers in their testimony under oath before the House Select Committee investigating Jan. 6.

Regarding the attempts to define Jan. 6 as a “peaceful protest,” they are annihilated by the memories of millions of people around the world who watched the events of that day unfold live on television and online streaming channels, the scores of photo and videos posted to social media by the rioters themselves or in evidence obtained by investigators, and the sworn testimony of law enforcement officers who were violently attacked.

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