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A Virginia school board has reversed its decision to rename two public schools honoring Confederate military leaders.
On Friday (May 10), the Shenandoah County, Virginia school board voted 5-1 in favor of a proposal that will restore the Confederate names of two of its schools, per NBC News.
The move comes after the board decided in 2020 to change the names of schools linked to Confederate leaders Stonewall Jackson, Robert E. Lee, and Turner Ashby. Following Tuesday's vote, Mountain View High School will return to the name Stonewall Jackson High School. Honey Run Elementary School will go back to Ashby-Lee Elementary School.
The board initially stripped the Confederate names in the wake of George Floyd's murder and the nation's racial reckoning. Conservative group Coalition for Better Schools petitioned against the renaming.
“We believe that revisiting this decision is essential to honor our community’s heritage and respect the wishes of the majority,” the coalition wrote in a letter to the board last month.
In 2022, a similar motion was put forth to reverse the name change, but it failed due to a tie vote.
The current members of the board said the decision in 2020 was made too hastily and without appropriate community input. On Thursday (May 9), roughly 80 people spoke before the board voted to restore the Confederate names, including at least 50 who were against the move.
"I am a Black student, and if the names are restored, I would have to represent a man that fought for my ancestors to be slaves," one student said. "I think it is unfair to me that restoring the names is up for discussion."
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