 "The Virginia flag, featuring the seal. Virginia.gov")
The flag of the state of Virginia has been banned for younger students in a Texas school district because it depicts the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a slain tyrant, with her falling toga exposing her left breast. The consolidated independent school district of Lamar, near Houston, expressed apprehension with the image last year.
The district eventually decided to remove a section about Virginia from its online learning platform used by third through fifth graders, typically encompassing ages eight to 11, sparking row over the flag, Axios reported. The Texas Freedom to Read Project, a group that opposes censorship and book bans in the state condemned the move and said that the new ban “unlocked a new level of dystopian, book-banning, and censorship hell in Texas”.
The removal of the flag automatically prevents students in the district from learning about the state of Virginia in the district’s online research database, PebbleGo Next, Axios reported. The group said it had filed a public records request following the omission.
The school district justifies its move
In response to the request, the school district acknowledged that Virginia was removed from the website due to the lesson violating the school board’s local library policy banning any “visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity” in elementary school library material.
This is not the first time the flag of Virginia has been scrutinised. Back in 2010, the flag was part of a debate about what constitutes sexually explicit material in the state’s school libraries. At that time, then state attorney general Ken Cuccinelli created special lapel pins that edited the seal to cover the breast.
Intrestingly, the battle over the flag and the state’s seal dates back to 1776 when the commonwealth wanted to appear strong during the war of independence over British rule and hit on the image of Virtus, wielding a sword and spear, and the inscription “Sic Semper Tyrannis” or “Thus always to tyrants”, next to a body and fallen crown.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsAt that time, the tyrant was symbolic of the King of England, George III and Virtus was seen more as a warrior than a Roman deity. Over the years, the logo was adapted in various ways. In 1901, Virginia officials decided to depict the bare breast to clearly show that the figure towering over the tyrant was clearly a female.
In the 2010 row, there were debates over Virtus’s nipple and the University of Virginia political scientist Larry Sabato mocked conservatives over censorship efforts. “When you ask to be ridiculed, it usually happens. And it will happen here, nationally. This is classical art, for goodness’s sake," he remarked at that time.