Two Virginia schools will revert to their Confederate names in U-turn four years after board axed references to military leaders in wake of George Floyd protests

A Virginia school board voted today to restore Confederate names to two schools that were stripped of their original names in the wake of the 2020 Black Lives Matter movement.

The school board of Shenandoah County, Virginia, voted 5-1 to reverse the 2020 decision in which a high school and elementary school removed the names of three military leaders of the pro-slavery Southern states in the American Civil War: Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.

The schools were called Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, but have since been called Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School.

School board documents showed the move was part of a resolution to “condemn racism and reaffirm 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 restore the names, writing that it was “essential to honor our community’s heritage.”

Stonewall Jackson High School was meanwhile renamed Mountain View High School (photo)

In its written request to the board, the group cited surveys it sent to residents of the districts from which the schools’ students come, saying that of 1,160 responses to 8,507 surveys sent, more than 90% favored a return to the Confederate. names.

Sarah Kohrs, a graduate of both schools, co-leads a citizens group that has collected 687 signatures on an online petition to keep the current names. Her eldest child is going to secondary school and she expects to enroll a younger child there as well.

“Their diplomas will say something, and I don’t want it to say anything associated with a Confederate general,” she said. ‘I’ve had to deal with that my whole life. I don’t want my children to have to deal with that.’

Kyle Gutshall, vice chairman of the board, said the 2020 name change had increased public attention on the board and helped shift its political makeup to the right.

He voted to restore the Confederate names when a similar motion came up in 2022, largely because he felt the 2020 decision was made without sufficient public input. The 2022 motion failed due to a tied vote.

The elementary school is named in part after Robert E. Lee

Returning to names follows a four-year trend of U.S. institutions removing symbols of the Confederacy following nationwide protests over racial justice

Gutshall declined to say how he would vote Thursday, saying there was “overwhelming” support in his district to keep the current names, but that a 60% majority of the entire district still appeared to prefer the old ones.

Michelle Manning, who represented Gutshall’s district in 2020, said she and other board members heard for weeks from county residents in favor of changing the schools’ names before voting to do so, even though in-person opportunities for feedback were more limited due to the COVID-19. -19 pandemic.

Manning said some supporters of the current names may be afraid to speak out because of the charged nature of the issue. “I received calls threatening my well-being after our 2020 vote, so I personally can’t blame people,” she said.

Returning the names follows a four-year trend of U.S. institutions removing symbols of the Confederacy following nationwide racial justice protests sparked by the May 2020 killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.

Of the more than 60 U.S. schools previously named after Confederate figures that have changed their names since 2020, none have restored Confederate names so far, according to the trade publication Education Week, which tracks such schools.