Must schools named after Confederates change after the Shenandoah schools ruling?
(There is a nasty lie being circulated that schools with names leftist do not like will have to change their names since the temporary Shenendoah ruling. Don’t fall for the wokester fear-mongering. No, not even the Shenendoah schools must change since it’s on appeal. - DD)
(Nick McNamara, WHRO) - No, but the case could serve as a “playbook” in other localities.
A federal judge ruled this month that Shenandoah County must remove the names of Confederate generals from two of its schools, names the school board had removed in 2020 and re-added in 2024.
Judge Michael Urbanski ruled that resurrecting the names discriminated against Black students and violated federal civil rights laws. The school board last week voted to appeal the case. But even if the ruling stands, legal experts say it has limited value as precedent to require name changes for other schools named after Confederate figures.
The names of Stonewall Jackson, J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee could once be found on schools around the commonwealth. From Hampton to Petersburg, most school divisions have renamed them.
More than 20 remained as of 2018; several were changed that year, and many of the remainders were changed in 2020 as a result of…
