Conservative legal group investigates Virginia school's 9/11 teaching guidance

America First Legal, a conservative legal advocacy group, has opened an investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools in Virginia over a six-page teaching guide distributed ahead of the 25th anniversary of the September 11 attacks. The guide, published August 27 and revised August 31, instructs teachers on how to commemorate the attacks while being mindful of Muslim and Middle Eastern students in their classrooms. The specific language that triggered the investigation tells educators not to "center the extremists or the acts of the extremists" and cautions against associating the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims as a whole.

America First Legal's senior counsel Ian Prior said the group launched the investigation directly after Fox News Digital reported on the guidance. Prior stated the organization wants to understand how Fairfax County arrived at these instructions and whether outside organizations participated in developing them, though he acknowledged the group has not yet confirmed whether outside involvement occurred. "We're still seeking to determine how far this goes," Prior said. The legal group filed a Freedom of Information Act request seeking records related to the guide's development and authorship, though the specific documents requested were not detailed in the group's public announcement.

The Fairfax County guidance reflects the district's effort to balance competing concerns within its diverse student population. The document acknowledges that lessons about the attacks can unintentionally stigmatize Muslim and Middle Eastern students, and it directs teachers to prepare for anti-Muslim rhetoric, create safe spaces for affected students, and challenge expressions of bias. For elementary students, the guide suggests teachers could simply say, "Twenty-five years ago today, there was an attack on the United States," allowing student questions to guide further discussion. For older students, the language becomes more specific: "members of the extremist group al-Qaeda hijacked four planes in a coordinated terrorist attack on the United States," followed by details about the 2,977 people killed and the actions of Flight 93 passengers who fought back.

The district's approach emphasizes what it calls resilience, support, and resistance rather than dwelling on the attackers themselves. The guidance states that "the commemoration of 9/11 focuses on those whose lives were lost and those who sacrificed to help others — not those who attacked the United States." Fairfax County noted in the document that its approach reflects the varied experiences of families in Northern Virginia, where some were directly affected by the attacks and the subsequent War on Terror, while Muslim families worry about harassment and hate crimes during the anniversary period.

America First Legal argues the district's approach goes too far in what it characterizes as historical erasure. Will Scolinos, counsel for the group, said in announcing the investigation that "Fairfax County Public Schools is attempting to sanitize history and erase the radical Islamic terrorism that struck our nation on September 11, 2001." The group is calling for "full transparency regarding who is responsible" for the guidance and demanding that parents and the public know who developed the materials.

Fairfax County Schools Superintendent Michelle Reid responded with a statement on September 11 saying the district "unequivocally condemn[s]" the 9/11 terrorist attacks and emphasized the district's connection to the Pentagon, military families, first responders and survivors. Reid also noted the district was "reviewing our materials" in response to community feedback. However, the district did not directly answer questions about who authored and approved the guidance, whether outside organizations were involved in its development, or whether changes to the document have been made or considered. The district has not identified who wrote the six-page guide or who approved its final language.

The dispute centers on how much emphasis teachers should place on the terrorists and their ideology when teaching about September 11. America First Legal argues that schools can teach students about the ideology that motivated the attacks without assigning collective responsibility to Muslims. The Fairfax County guidance itself attempts this distinction, stating that "Al-Qaeda's ideology and actions should not be attributed to Islam or to Muslims as a religious community." Prior said the group has not yet determined what action might follow its investigation, noting that next steps will depend on what the FOIA request reveals about the guide's development and who was involved in creating it.