Federal Judge Says Virginia School Board Violated Students’ Civil Rights by Restoring Schools’ Confederate Names

A federal judge says a Virginia school board violated black students’ civil rights when it restored Confederate names to two schools, and that it must once again change the school names. The legal battle over the school names was sparked by a 2020 decision by the Shenandoah County School Board to rename Stonewall Jackson High School as Mountain View High School. The board also re-named Ashby Lee Elementary, which was named after Robert E. Lee and a Confederate cavalry commander, Turner Ashby Jr., as Honey Run Elementary School. Four years later, the school board — with different members — voted to restore the names of Confederate leaders to the schools. The NAACP Virginia State Conference and several students sued, arguing that restoring the school names violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964.On Friday, a federal district court judge, Michael Urbanski, an Obama appointee, ruled in favor of the NAACP and ordered Shenandoah county to change the school names, finding that the “decision to rename the schools after Confederate leaders cannot be divorced from racial discrimination.”“The Confederate names were restored with complete awareness of their historic legacy and ongoing discriminatory impact,” Judge Urbanski wrote. “In the court’s view, the affirmative act of reinstating these vestiges of segregation is far more problematic than a passive failure to remove a long-standing name or symbol.”The judge instructed the school board to come up with new school names “on a racially nondiscriminatory basis with all deliberate speed.”Judge Urbanski said schools should have an “educational environment free of vestiges of racial discrimination.”In a statement, the NAACP Virginia State Conference said Judge Urbanski’s ruling is a “decisive victory for students.” The ruling came roughly eight months after a five-day bench trial. Last September, Judge Urbanski granted summary judgment to the plaintiffs on their claim that the name change violated students’ First Amendment rights by “compelling students to advance the school board’s chosen message favoring ‘Stonewall Jackson’ through the conduct of extracurricular activities.”Attorneys for the plaintiffs argued in court that when the schools were built, they were named after Confederate leaders to protest integration and the civil rights movement. They also insisted requiring students to wear uniforms that include Confederate names would force them to endorse a “message of racial exclusion.”During the trial, students shared testimony about how attending a school with a Confederate name would make them feel unwelcome.In court filings, lawyers for the Shenandoah school board pushed back on the claim that there was a racial motivation for the name change and instead said it was “motivated by nothing more than public will and … respect for the democratic process.” In 2024, the school board said it was responding to a “knee-jerk” reaction against Confederate leaders.Representatives for the Shenandoah school board did not respond to the Sun’s request for comment by the time of publication.

Federal Judge Says Virginia School Board Violated Students’ Civil Rights by Restoring Schools’ Confederate Names

Federal Judge Says Virginia School Board Violated Students’ Civil Rights by Restoring Schools’ Confederate Names

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