Local Virginia School Board Revives Confederate Names For Local Schools...
From Tampa Free Press
Article By Liam Edgar, Original Publish Date: May 13, 2024
Local Virginia School Board Revives Confederate Names For Local Schools, Citing “Knee-Jerk” Name Change During Floyd Riots
A county school board in Virginia has opted for actual history over left-wing revisionism.
The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 last week to restore the names of Confederate generals to local schools that were removed during the Black Lives Matter riots of 2020 following the death of Minneapolis criminal suspect George Floyd in police custody.
According to the conservative website BizPac Review, the board’s vote will restore the name Stonewall Jackson High School to what is now Mountain View High School and rename the current Honey Run Elementary School to Ashby-Lee Elementary School, named after Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby.
BPR added that the effort approved last week had been underway since 2022.
That year, the board deadlocked 3-3 to retain the new names. But, after that vote, “the three board members who voted to keep the new names have left and been replaced by less radical people,” BPR added.
The majority attributed the 2020 decision to a “knee-jerk reaction” to Floyd’s death and the subsequent unrest across the country.
National Public Radio reported that board members who supported the shift back to the Confederate generals noted that opponents of the change were very vocal about ridding the community of the legacy of men like Stonewall Jackson and Robert E. Lee but were silent about schools named after other slaveholders.
“I think all of this was politically driven,” board member Michael Rickard said, NPR reported.
Rickard also held up a stack of what he said were emails about the proposal. Of those, 118 people wanted to keep the current names, but 144 wanted to restore the names of the Confederate warriors.
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