An education board in Virginia votes to restore Confederate names to 2 schools
WOODSTOCK, Va. — A Virginia school board voted Friday to restore the names of Confederate military leaders to a high school and an elementary school, four years after the names were removed.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to rename Mountain View High School as Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary as Ashby Lee Elementary.
Friday’s vote reverses a school board decision in 2020, a time when school systems across the South removed Confederate names from schools in response to the Black Lives Matter movement.
School board members who voted to restore the Confederate names said the previous board ignored popular sentiment and due process when the names were removed.
The 2023 elections have significantly changed the composition of the school board.
Board member Gloria Carlineo said during a six-hour meeting that began Thursday evening that opponents of Confederate names “must stop injecting racism and prejudice into everything” because it “distracts from real instances of racism.”
The only board member to vote against reinstating the Confederate names, Kyle Gutshall, said he respects both sides of the debate but believed a majority of residents in his district wanted to leave the names Mountain View and Honey Run in place.
“I don’t judge or look down on anyone for the decision they make,” he said. “It is a complex issue.”
Thomas J. “Stonewall” Jackson was a Confederate general from Virginia who rose to prominence at the First Battle of Bull Run near Manassas in 1861 and died in 1863 after being shot in the battle and having his arm amputated. Jackson’s name was also removed from another high school in Virginia’s Prince William County in 2020, now known as Unity Reed High School.
Turner Ashby was a Confederate cavalry officer who died in battle near Harrisonburg, Virginia in 1862. A high school near Harrisonburg is also named in his honor. Robert E. Lee came from Virginia and commanded the Confederate forces.
The decision approved by the school board on Friday states that private donations will be used to fund the name changes.
Shenandoah County is a largely rural jurisdiction with a population of about 45,000, about 100 miles west of the nation’s capital.