Federal Judge Orders Virginia County to Change Confederate School Names
A federal judge in Virginia has ruled in favor of the Virginia NAACP in a lawsuit challenging the Shenandoah County school board's decision to reinstate Confederate names for two schools. The ruling, issued by Judge Michael F. Urbanski, found that the school board's actions violated the rights of Black students under the 14th Amendment's equal protection clause.
The judge stated that the names of Confederate officers represented remnants of the county's segregationist past and mandated the school board to select new names that do not discriminate racially. The court emphasized that schools should provide an educational environment free from the remnants of racial discrimination.
The NAACP's lawsuit was filed on behalf of six students and their parents after the school board voted to revert Mountain View High School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary to Ashby-Lee Elementary. This decision reversed a previous 2020 ruling to remove the Confederate names amid national discussions on racial injustice.
