Judge orders Education Department to teach Virgin Islands history

Plaintiffs in a St. Croix case that has been pending for more than a decade have declared victory, after a Superior Court judge ordered the Education Department to start teaching all Virgin Islands students the history of the territory and Caribbean region.

The case originated with a law passed more than 40 years ago in 1983, Act No. 4844, which mandated that public schools instruct all students in Virgin Islands and basic Caribbean History.

Mary Moorhead, Kendall Petersen, and Gregory E. Miller Jr. initially filed a petition against the V.I. Education Department and Board of Education in 2013, asking the court to declare that the government has failed to comply with the act, and Miller and Mario Moorhead, a community activist and radio talk show host, are the current plaintiffs. Petersen died in November 2014.

Specifically, the Education Department and board failed to develop a curriculum for kindergarten through grade 12, and the plaintiffs claimed that the failure “is impairing the ability of Virgin Islands students to develop a sense of self and identity,” according to the 37-page opinion filed Thursday by Judge Alphonso Andrews Jr.