Two Virginia schools will revert to their Confederate names in U-turn four ... trends now
View
comments
A Virginia school board today voted to reinstate Confederate names to two schools that were stripped of their original names in the wake of the Black Lives Matter movement in 2020.
The school board of Shenandoah County, Virginia, voted 5-1 to undo the 2020 decision, which saw a high school and elementary school stripping the names of three military leaders of the pro-slavery Southern states in the US Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner Ashby.
The schools were called Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, but since been called Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School.
School board documents showed the moved was part of a resolution to condemn 'racism and affirm the division’s commitment to an inclusive school environment for all.'
A local conservative coalition, the Coalition for Better Schools, asked the Shenandoah County school board in April to reinstate the names, writing that doing so was 'essential to honor our community's heritage.'
Ashby Lee Elementary School was renamed Honey Run Elementary School (pictured)
Stonewall Jackson High School, meanwhile, was renamed Mountain View High School (pictured)
In its written request to the board, the group cited surveys that it mailed to residents of the districts from which the schools' students are drawn, saying that out of 1,160 responses to 8,507 surveys sent, more than 90% favored switching back to the Confederate names.
Sarah Kohrs, who graduated from both schools, co-leads a citizens group that has garnered 687 signatures on an online
