Following up on a request yesterday from Gov. Youngkin, Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares today announced that his Office of Civil Rights will be investigating Fairfax County Public Schools and the administration of Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology for unlawful discrimination in violation of the Virginia Human Rights Act.
The investigation will examine if the administration’s decision to withhold National Merit Scholarship honors from students and the school’s new admissions policies violate the the act, Miyares’s office said in a statement.
“No student should be treated differently because of their race. Students at Thomas Jefferson High School for Science & Technology are amongst the brightest in the nation, yet some have been punished in the name of ‘equity.’ Racism and race-based government decision making in any form is wrong and unlawful under Virginia’s Human Rights Act,” Miyares said. “The controversial admissions policies at TJHSST, which have significantly decreased the amount of Asian American students enrolled in recent years, is another example of students being treated differently because of their ethnicity. My Office of Civil Rights will investigate any potential violations of the law and vindicate the civil rights of these students and their families.”
The investigation comes after a grand-jury investigation of the Loudoun County school system launched by Miyares resulted in the indictment late last year of the former superintendent and current public-relations head of the system. That investigation related to the handling of sexual-assault allegations within the school system.