Va. schools will again have Confederate leaders’ names
A Virginia school district is poised to restore the names of Confederate leaders to two local schools − four years after the decision to change the names in the aftermath of the racial reckoning of 2020.
On Friday, the Shenandoah County school board voted 5-1 to reverse the names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School back to Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School.
The decision came after community members offered differing arguments during a public hearing Thursday. Vice Chairman Kyle L. Gutshall was the sole vote against the change. Other members pointed to the board’s failure to get public input years ago.
“This was not an innocent mistake by some inexperienced school board,” District 2 school board member Gloria Carlineo said at the hearing, calling it a “carefully choreographed” move by the board “alluding to ignore the people they represented.”
Names changed in 2021
The name changes took effect in 2021 after the district dropped the original names honoring Confederate military leaders Robert E. Lee, Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson and Turner Ashby.
In 2022, the Coalition for Better Schools, a local conservative group, tried unsuccessfully to change the names back, but the school board deadlocked in a 3-3 vote at the time. In April, the coalition challenged the change again, stating in a letter to the Shenandoah County School Board that the names “honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority.”
“We appreciate your dedication to our schools and the well-being of our students,” the coalition wrote. “Restoring these names would demonstrate a commitment to inclusivity, respect for history, and responsiveness to community feedback.”
The group’s letter stated Confederate Gens. Jackson and Lee, and Cmdr. Ashby have historical connections to Virginia and the commonwealth’s history.
Several states, federal agencies and localities removed Confederate names, monuments and statues after a wave of protests following the 2020 murder of George Floyd, a Black man, by a white police officer.
Restoration stirs debate
At the meeting, some who opposed the measure cited Black students and the state’s racist past for their stance. One said that even considering restoring the names is an “absolute travesty” and called on the board to make the right choice.
“My heart breaks for the children that are going to have to walk into schools named after people that wanted them and their families enslaved,” she said.
Another said, “If you vote to restore the name Stonewall Jackson in 2024, you will be resurrecting an act in 1959 that is forever rooted in mass resistance and Jim Crow segregation.”
The board’s decision is likely the first such restoration in the country.