A Virginia high school sent a disturbing letter to parents and students announcing it would be selecting students for Advanced Placement and honors classes based on skin color instead of intelligence.

Martin Luther King Jr. must be turning over in his grave.

A parent forwarded me a copy of the letter sent from John Handley High School in Winchester.

“Through our collective work, advanced classes such as AP and Honors will have proportional representation,” read the letter. “Proportional representation is 40% White, 35% Hispanic, 12% African American, 10% mixed race.”

The letter went on to explain that public schools across the country “continue to see outcomes that are disproportionate by race and social class.”

“American demographic trends indicate that America will be a majority minority nation in the next 25 years,” the letter read. “Therefore, the new work of American public schools is to develop systems to address disparate outcomes.”

Interesting — I thought the work of American public schools was to teach kids how to read, write, multiply and divide.

Among those who received the letter was Eric Sitton, the father of a rising sophomore honors student at the high school.

“I was taken aback. I couldn’t believe someone would put words like that in print to send around to the homes of students,” he told me.

He said he was especially distressed when his teenage son read the rules governing honors classes.

“I felt powerless to help my child,” he said. “Seeing the look on his face when he realized that he was being judged by the color of his skin was agonizing.”

So how does a public school district explain judging children based on their pigmentation?

I reached out to the school district multiple times over the past two days but so far it has not responded to my questions regarding the policy.

“My son asked me, ‘Am I not going to be able to be in an AP class because I’m white?’ And I didn’t know what to tell him,” Mr. Sitton said.

Clearly, the school is playing identity politics. And it won’t be long before it requires students to take white privilege classes.

Last year, he said one of his son’s teachers told students she could not believe anyone would vote for Donald Trump. She attempted to influence students with her political ideology.

“It is honestly like trying to run a marathon in mud trying to deal with the school system,” Mr. Sitton told me.

Hopefully, Mr. Sitton’s son will be among the 40 percent of white people permitted to enroll in honors classes.

“I told my son to just do the best you can do, show your aptitude and hopefully you will get the classes you want,” he said.