A federal judge in Virginia has ruled that Shenandoah County Public Schools’ reinstatement of Confederate military names to schools was discriminatory, the Associated Press reported. The school board has been ordered to change the names again.
The school board had originally retired the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School in 2020 because of their connections to the Confederacy, WHSV reported. In May 2024, the school board voted to reverse that decision.
The Virginia NAACP filed a lawsuit against the county school board, arguing that reinstating the names discriminated against Black students.
On Thursday, Judge Michael F. Urbanski ruled that reinstating the names violated Black students’ rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. It also violated the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.
A Unique Case
Urbanski wrote that this case was unique because it was not about names that had been in place for years, but rather about the reinstatement of names that had previously been removed.
“The Confederate names were restored with complete awareness of their historic legacy and ongoing discriminatory impact,” 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 ruled the board to find new school names that were not racially discriminatory “with all deliberate speed.”
Feature image, stock.adobe.com
