A Virginia county board votes to restore Confederates’ names to schools

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May 10, 2024

By Bill Chappell, NPR

The Shenandoah County School Board in Virginia will restore the names of Confederate generals Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby to two local schools. The controversial reversal comes nearly four years after the names were changed.

Mountain View High School will revert to its former name, Stonewall Jackson High School, and Honey Run Elementary School will go back to being Ashby-Lee Elementary School.

The board approved the change by a 5-1 vote, with supporters saying the Confederate figures’ names had been taken off the schools in 2020 in a “knee-jerk” reaction amid protests of George Floyd’s murder by police. But opponents — including some current students — warned the board that the Confederate names would brand the schools and their county as a haven for backward, racist thinking.

Debate over changing the name began last month. As member station WMRA reports, it was the second attempt to restore the names, after a failed try in 2022.

Finish the article to read what students think about the decision.

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