The Virginia Beach City Public Schools board convened Tuesday night and voted to keep in place an April resolution to suspend diversity, equity and inclusion policies.
School board members who called the emergency meeting introduced a motion to amend the previous resolution, and pause enacting some of its directives while federal courts litigate the issue.
The motion failed in a 5-5 vote, with one member absent.
More than 50 residents spoke at the meeting, with about two to one speakers in favor of DEI initiatives.
Following the vote, the school board will continue evaluating and rolling back programs and policies related to DEI.
The school board typically meets on the second and fourth Tuesday of each month. This week’s meeting was called by three school board members — Matt Cummings, Alveta Green and Melinda Rogers — who voted against last month’s resolution.
On April 8, board member David Cupepper introduced a resolution to follow an executive order from President Donald Trump that threatened to withhold funding from schools with DEI programs in place.
The board voted on the resolution at that meeting. Two weeks later, over 100 speakers turned out, mostly speaking against the school board’s decision to eliminate the programs.
Cummings, Green and Rogers called the emergency meeting after federal courts enacted preliminary injunctions against the executive order, citing First Amendment concerns. The courts said direction from the executive order and the U.S. Department of Education is too vague for schools to follow.
Cummings said the lack of clarity in following the executive order could have consequences for students.
“This impacts our local kids,” he said. “We don’t know what courses are impacted. We make a guess, and we make a wrong guess, that steps on their First Amendment Rights.”
In a presentation, school board attorney Kamala Lannetti explained the preliminary injunctions are not final rulings, but could halt enforcement of the executive order because the court has reason to believe it might violate law — in this case, the First Amendment.
If there’s even the potential of infringement on those rights, the court will generally find that, in itself, is an injury, she said.
“What they’re looking for is, is there a chilling effect?”
Following the vote, the school division will continue with the resolution adopted April 8, and evaluate educational programming, policies and hiring practices for compliance with the executive order.
