Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, is under fire for directing teachers not to associate the September 11 terrorist attacks with Islam or Muslims, a controversy that surfaced on the attacks’ 25th anniversary. A six-page guidance document sent to educators instructs staff to “design instruction around your students’ needs and experiences” and explicitly says, do not “associate the 9/11 attacks with Islam or Muslims” and do not “center the extremists or the acts of the extremists.”
The attacks were carried out by al-Qaeda, a jihadist organization led in September 2001 by Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri. The group had issued a fatwa in 1998 declaring it the duty of all Muslims to kill Americans and U.S. allies. Nearly 3,000 people died in the coordinated strikes on New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania.
Jason Miyares calls the guidance indoctrination
Former Virginia Attorney General Jason Miyares did not hold back in his criticism of the district’s approach. “It’d be like trying to teach Pearl Harbor and leave out the fact we were attacked by the Japanese Empire,” Miyares told 7News. “It’s that absurd. It is not education. It’s an indoctrination.”
Miyares went further, calling the guidance dangerous and deliberate. “I think it’s monstrous,” he said. “There is something horrifying and enraging to see 3,000 of your fellow Americans executed on live television, all for the crime of being an American. That there are people out here that want to kill Americans, kill the innocent, and they were Islamic radical terrorists. And trying to hide the fact does not educate your children.” According to Fairfax County 9/11 teaching guidance, the district says its intent is to prevent bullying of Muslim students, citing data that two in five Muslim families report their children have experienced anti-Muslim harassment in schools, and that 25 percent of those incidents involved a teacher or administrator.
The school district’s stated rationale
FCPS Superintendent Michelle Reid addressed families and staff in a letter acknowledging the gravity of the anniversary. “On September 11, 2001, terrorists carried out a horrific, coordinated attack on our nation,” Reid wrote. “FCPS continues to unequivocally condemn these acts of terrorism and violence in all forms, including the deliberate targeting of innocent people.”
The district’s guidance tells teachers that Muslim students “report to experience the worst anti-Muslim racism on commemorations and lessons on September 11th, annually” and that instruction without care can “stigmatize Islam and encourage acts of racism against Muslim students.” Reid’s letter also noted that the district is reviewing its materials in response to community feedback and that it teaches 9/11 in accordance with Virginia Standards of Learning, which require students to analyze the attacks within the context of terrorism and U.S. history.
Community pressure and next steps
Fairfax County parent Stephanie Lundquist Arora questioned the message being sent to families directly affected by the attacks. “What kind of message are you sending, especially to those children and those families who their parents were actually present during that tragedy, and then you’re just trying to sweep it under the rug or not include all the facts about it?” she told 7News. “It’s adding insult to injury.”
Superintendent Reid confirmed the district is actively reviewing its commemorative materials in light of community feedback. Miyares suggested the guidance stems from legislation passed after Governor Glenn Youngkin had previously removed similar directives, and he called on educators across the state to prioritize historical truth in their classrooms.
