Loudoun County Public Schools is steering even second graders toward a Thanksgiving lesson that presents the holiday as a “Day of Mourning.” The material appears in a district guide offering teachers outside resources for lessons about federal holidays.

The Northern Virginia district appears to have developed its “Resources for Recognition Days & Months” guide in 2024, then updated it for the school year beginning in 2026 and ending in 2027. The watchdog group Protect the Public’s Trust obtained the guide.

In the Thanksgiving section, LCPS recommends “The Real Story of Thanksgiving” for grades 2 through 5. According to the district, the lesson “focuses on the traditions as well as the Native American perspective,” with slides that challenge “traditional depictions of the first Thanksgiving.”

One slide carries the blunt title “Day of Mourning.” It says, “Some Native American groups protest Thanksgiving as a Day of Mourning. They claim that the arrival of European explorers and settlers is not a cause for celebration, because it began the ill treatment and deaths of millions of Native Americans.”

Francesca Hong may have come up short in her Wisconsin gubernatorial campaign, but her spirit lives on in Loudoun County, Virginia, where the public school district is recommending a holiday lesson plan that declares Thanksgiving a “Day of Mourning,” @CAndersonMO reports. https://t.co/7iQ7LHrJj6

— Washington Free Beacon (@FreeBeacon) November 12, 2026

Trump's Sovereign Wealth Fund: What Could It Mean For Your Money?

The slide continues, “For them, Thanksgiving marks the beginning of a long period of violence and discrimination.” That is the historical framing placed in a lesson made available for students as young as second grade.

Middle and high school students get another approved option titled “Thanksgiving: A Day of Mixed Blessings.” It includes a HuffPost video called “Why These Native Americans Observe A National Day Of Mourning Each Thanksgiving,” which begins with a man invoking Malcolm X.

“It’s just like Malcolm X said,” the man says. “We didn’t land on Plymouth Rock. Plymouth Rock landed on us.” The HuffPost is a left wing media outlet, making the district’s recommended lineup about as subtle as a drumbeat.

FREE Gun Law Map: Laws Don't Pause During Social Unrest

Christopher Columbus receives similar treatment in the guide. The October holiday list uses Indigenous Peoples’ Day instead of Columbus Day and recommends “Columbus Day- A Debated Celebration” for middle and high school students.

That plan asks students to “reflect on the controversy of this holiday and its impact on indigenous populations.” The Thanksgiving and Columbus materials fit a pattern that has kept LCPS at the center of battles over left wing education.

LCPS became a national symbol of “woke” K-12 education during Republican Glenn Youngkin’s 2021 campaign for governor. After the district released a 22 page “equity” plan during the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020, Youngkin repeatedly rallied in wealthy and deeply Democratic Loudoun County.

The plan called for “implicit bias training” in public schools and established a “Student Equity Ambassador” program initially open only to “students of color.” LCPS also adopted a policy letting students use bathrooms matching their gender identity instead of biological sex.

That bathroom policy drew intense scrutiny after a male student, reportedly described as “gender-fluid,” sexually assaulted a female student in a women’s restroom at a Loudoun County high school. Youngkin called for an investigation into the school board’s handling of the case.

Youngkin campaigned against the equity plan and called to “ban teaching critical race theory in our schools.” He won 44% of Loudoun County’s vote in 2021, an improvement of 8 points over President Donald Trump’s performance there in 2020.

The district did not moderate during the Youngkin years, according to the source. When the Republican signed an executive order banning school mask mandates, several Loudoun County schools said students arriving without masks would be suspended.

An LCPS spokesman defended the approach, saying, “LCPS is intentional about ensuring students have opportunities to learn about history through multiple perspectives and to develop a more complete understanding of historical events.” The spokesman said that includes experiences and perspectives that traditional historical narratives may not have fully represented.

The guide’s recommended Women’s History Month resources also begin with a dose of ideological scolding. Before listing lesson plans, it directs teachers to a Learning for Justice article from the Southern Poverty Law Center’s education program titled “The Trouble With Women’s History Month.”

“The trouble with Women’s History Month—with all these special months—is that they encourage people to think that problems have been solved,” the article reads. It says female heroes are acknowledged while the debt is considered paid and the slate wiped clean.

Christmas, meanwhile, is not mentioned anywhere in the guide. December appears in the table of contents, but the material jumps from Thanksgiving in November to Martin Luther King Day in January, leaving Christmas absent.

The opinions expressed by contributors and/or content partners are their own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Objectivist. Contact us for guidelines on submitting your own commentary.