Texas Schools Remove Lesson Featuring Virginia State Flag Due to Concerns Over Nudity Depiction
Title: Texas School District Bans Virginia Flag in Lesson Over Depiction of Nudity
In one of the latest examples of debates surrounding censorship in education, a Texas school district has removed a history lesson about the state of Virginia from an online learning platform due to the depiction of a partially nude Roman goddess on Virginia’s official state flag.
The Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (LCISD), located just outside of Houston, took issue with the image of Virtus, the Roman goddess of virtue, who appears with one exposed breast as part of Virginia’s official seal. That depiction, which has graced the flag since the early 20th century, was deemed a violation of the district’s policy prohibiting “frontal nudity” in materials accessible to elementary school students.
The lesson in question was available through PebbleGo Next, a widely used educational platform catering to third through fifth graders. LCISD confirmed it disabled access to the Virginia history module on November 25 shortly after adopting new materials guidelines that reflected the requirements of Texas’s controversial “READER Act” (House Bill 900), a law that restricts “obscene” or “pervasively vulgar” materials in school libraries and educational tools.
What the Virginia Flag Shows — and Why It’s at Issue
Virginia’s state seal, and by extension its flag, features Virtus standing victoriously over a fallen tyrant under the motto, “Sic semper tyrannis” (“Thus always to tyrants”). The flag’s design reinforces the American values of liberty and resistance to tyranny, originally adopted in 1776 during Virginia’s Constitutional Convention. However, the depiction of Virtus includes classical imagery consistent with Roman garb — a toga that drapes off one shoulder, exposing one of her breasts.
While widely recognized as historical and symbolic, that part of the image led LCISD to halt instructional access to the lesson, citing the district’s updated policies on student exposure to nudity — however historically or artistically presented.
Civil Liberties Groups React
The removal has sparked concern among civil liberties and freedom-of-information advocates.
“Texans are enduring attacks on our freedom to read at every level of government — from school boards to the State House,” said Chloe Kempf, staff attorney at the American Civil Liberties Union of Texas. “Nudity on a state flag is an absurd justification to censor a history lesson.”
This incident comes amid broader state-wide efforts to restrict school materials deemed inappropriate. Critics argue these measures often amount to overreach, suppressing access to educational content about topics ranging from race to LGBTQ+ identity, and in this case, classical symbols used on a government flag.
The Growing Scope of Censorship in Schools
LCISD’s removal of the Virginia lesson is not an isolated occurrence. According to the Texas Freedom to Read Project, the district also deleted a lesson about “Family Types” from the platform, citing the material’s inclusion of content related to “gender fluidity.”
The organization says LCISD amended its internal policies just days before the Virginia lesson was blocked, adding a clause that bans “visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity.” This decision seems to go beyond the original scope of HB 900, suggesting that some school districts are interpreting the law even more strictly than required.
HB 900, passed in September 2023, mandates that Texas public school libraries must not collect or offer books with “pornographic,” “obscene,” or “pervasively vulgar” content. Civil rights advocates argue the terms used in the law are overly broad. In practice, they say, the law disproportionately targets materials that explore racial, gender, or sexual identity themes — and now, apparently, even artwork associated with a U.S. state’s official symbols.
A Broader Pattern
This controversy is reminiscent of a 2023 case in Florida where an elementary school principal was forced out after students were shown Michelangelo’s iconic — and nude — sculpture, David. As in the LCISD case, that incident involved objections to classical representations of the human body, raising questions about where educational limits should be drawn and who decides.
Anne Russey, co-founder of the Texas Freedom to Read Project, called the LCISD lesson removal “a mark of the times,” emphasizing that, “Banning the Virginia state flag is likely not the intent of any lawmakers or local school board trustees, but this is the reality we find ourselves in.”
She encourages parents and community members to get involved: “Texas parents who oppose book bans and censorship must speak up when they see problematic local policies and state laws and advocate for reasonable, individual parent and student rights — not more government overreach and control.”
What Happens Next?
LCISD’s decision has yet to be reversed, and the district has not indicated whether they plan to reassess the Virginia history module. In the meantime, students in grades 3–5 will be unable to access lessons about one of the original 13 colonies and