School board members in Virginia’s Shenandoah County voted early Friday to restore the names of two schools that previously honored Confederate leaders – four years after those names had been removed.
The 5-1 vote came after hours of public comment from people speaking on both sides of the issue. Vice Chairman Kyle L. Gutshall was the sole opposing vote.
The board meeting began Thursday evening at the Peter Muhlenberg Middle School in Woodstock, Virginia, and ahead of the proceeding, supporters and opponents of the change told CNN they planned to speak during the public comment period.
“I don’t want my kids learning about the Confederacy as being something to claim for community identity. I want them to know that they can look at every child in their face and they can say ‘you matter, you belong here, you belong here.’ That is not what the old names do,” Sarah Kohrs, a mother of two students attending schools in the district, told CNN before the meeting.
In the years since the 2020 killing of George Floyd, the names of Confederate leaders, Confederate monuments and symbols have been removed from numerous schools, universities, military facilities and even the Washington National Cathedral’s windows.
Nearly four years ago, the Shenandoah County School Board made such a decision and moved to rename Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School. The schools had been named after Confederate Gens. Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.
That 2020 move was part of a resolution condemning racism and affirming the district’s “commitment to an inclusive school environment,” according to school board documents.
The schools have been called Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School since July 2021, according to board documents.
But the composition of the school board is different now than it was during the 2020 decision – all six seats are held by different people.
Changes could be a six-figure expense
After a group of residents named The Coalition for Better Schools asked the board last month to consider restoring the original school names, members discussed the issue in a work session, heard public comments and scheduled this week’s vote.
In an April 22 work session meeting, the six board members criticized how the names were changed in 2020, saying it was wrongly done, was rushed and lacked public input. Board member Gloria E. Carlineo said in the work session that it also “eroded” confidence in the school board.
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