Federal Judge Orders Virginia County to Replace Confederate School Names It Restored in 2024
The ruling says the names were restored for discriminatory reasons and must be replaced on a racially nondiscriminatory basis.
- On Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski ruled the Shenandoah County School Board violated federal civil rights laws by reinstating Confederate names to two schools, ordering the board to promptly remove the monikers.
- The board's 2024 decision to revert Mountain View High School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary to Ashby-Lee Elementary prompted the NAACP lawsuit, despite board members claiming they were honoring community sentiment.
- Urbanski determined the renaming was racially motivated, noting schools were originally named in 1959 and 1974 to resist federal integration rules, and found reinstating these names inflicts "real, racially disproportionate harm" on Black students.
- In a statement Friday, the NAACP Virginia State Conference called the ruling "a decisive victory" for students, while Kaitlin Banner, deputy legal director at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs, affirmed the court's recognition of harm.
- The board must now adopt new school names "with all deliberate speed" on a racially nondiscriminatory basis, a mandate issued amid broader national efforts under President Donald Trump to restore Confederate figures to classrooms and monuments.
36 Articles
36 Articles
Virginia Mercury
InsideNoVA.comVa. school board to appeal federal court order to remove Confederate school names
Stonewall Jackson High School in Shenandoah County, Virginia. (Nathaniel Cline/Virginia Mercury)After more than two hours in the second of two closed sessions, the Shenandoah County School Board voted unanimously 6-0 Thursday night to appeal a federal court’s order for the district to remove Confederate names from schools in the county. It may cost millions in taxpayer dollars to contest the decision. Judge: Shenandoah School Board violated stud…
tippinsights
ussanews.comCourt Rules Against Confederate School Names In Virginia’s Shenandoah County
By RICH TUCKER, The Daily Signal | August 11, 2026 A federal judge ruled that Shenandoah County must once again change the names of two schools it had returned to their original names in 2024. The schools had been named Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School until the names were changed in 2020 to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School.After new school board members were elected two years ago, the board …
Court Rules Against Confederate School Names in Virginia
A federal judge ruled that Shenandoah County must once again change the names of two schools it had returned to their original names in 2024. The schools had been named Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School until the names were changed in 2020 to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School....
District Must Rename Schools After It Restored Confederate Names, Judge Rules
A federal judge has mandated that Shenandoah County Schools in Virginia must rename two schools that had been given Confederate names in 2024. The district had previously removed these names in 2020, changing Stonewall Jackson High School to Mountain View High and Ashby-Lee Elementary to Honey Run Elementary following a board resolution condemning racism. In a 141-page ruling issued Thursday, Judge Michael Urbanski determined that the school boa…
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