The American Civil Liberties Union filed the suit on behalf of the families Tuesday in the federal eastern district of Virginia against the Department of Defense Education Activity, DODEA Director Beth Schiavino-Narvaez and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth.

The incident has raised concerns in the U.S. military community near Grafenwoehr and Vilseck that the school deliberately kept students from speaking out against the removal of material deemed to support DEI, a claim that school officials dispute.

Hundreds of students at more than a dozen Defense Department schools in the U.S., Europe, Japan and Guam gathered in a coordinated walkout Thursday to protest DOD orders rolling back initiatives for diversity, equity and inclusion.

Participating students will receive an unexcused absence for missing classes, seminars or advisory periods, principals at Department of Defense Education Activity schools in Europe and Asia said in identically worded letters to parents this week.

Small teams are scheduled to fan out to nine Air Force and Space Force installations by the end of March to review compliance with executive orders related to diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Extracurricular clubs disbanded following a series of executive orders targeting federal diversity initiatives are now being allowed to exist if they’re organized by students and don’t include paid volunteers.

An observant school bus driver helped send a former Navy sailor to prison for trying to induce three girls to send pornographic material of themselves, according to the Justice Department.

“We have been given authority to relook at some of the funding and how we travel to see what might be possible for this weekend,” Jessica Tackaberry, Department of Defense Education Activity Europe spokeswoman, told Stars and Stripes on Wednesday night.

Hundreds of Defense Department students in Europe and Asia staged a walkout to rally against the removal of diversity initiatives, symbols and ideas in their schools as part of the largest student-led demonstrations so far this year on U.S. military bases.

Ramstein High School robotics whizzes earned their second consecutive invitation to compete on the world stage after topping more than two dozen teams.