State flag banned over Roman goddess’ bare breast – media

A US school district has removed an online civics lesson about Virginia and its state flag due to rules against frontal nudity, Axios has reported.

The Virginia official flag features the state seal, which depicts the Roman goddess Virtus standing over a defeated tyrant. In line with classical imagery, Virtus is partially draped, with one breast exposed.

According to Axios report on Friday, the Lamar Consolidated Independent School District (CISD), located outside Houston, Texas, has removed the Virginia lesson from an online platform used by elementary students in grades three to five. The district confirmed the move in response to a Freedom of Information Act request filed by the Texas Freedom to Read Project.

The group’s co-director, Anne Russey, said the district cited its newly adopted policy banning “visual depictions or illustrations of frontal nudity” in elementary school library materials.

The removed content was part of PebbleGo Next, an educational website used by schools across the US, including some in Virginia.

Virginia’s original 1776 state seal portrayed the Roman goddess Virtus clad in toga and a full breastplate. The imagery was adopted for the state flag in 1861, when the legislature placed the seal on a blue field to formalize it as Virginia’s official emblem. In 1901, however, a redesign introduced the bare-breasted figure after the secretary of the commonwealth criticized the earlier version for lacking “artistic grace and beauty” and appearing too masculine.

The current design, finalized in 1931, shows Virtus in a helmet, holding a spear and sword above a fallen tyrant, with the state’s Latin motto that reads Sic Semper Tyrannis – “Thus Always to Tyrants.” 

The Texas Freedom to Read Project, which advocates against book bans and censorship, criticized the flag’s removal and the law behind it. On its website, the group described state policies as “vague and confusing.”