Virginia School Board Votes to Restore Schools’ Confederate Leader Names
A Virginia school board voted early Friday to reinstate the Confederate military leader names of two public schools.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 in favor of restoring the names, reversing the board’s decision four years ago to get rid of them in the wake of George Floyd’s murder. The move to bring back the association with figures who led pro-enslavement states during the Civil War might be the first action of its kind taken anywhere in the U.S.
As a result of the vote, Mountain View High School will once again be known as Stonewall Jackson High School, while Honey Run Elementary School will revert to Ashby-Lee Elementary School—a name honoring Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.