A federal judge in Shenandoah County has ruled in favor of five students who challenged the name change of two of the county schools.
The case began in 2024 after the Shenandoah County School Board changed two county schools back to their original names that honored Confederate war figures Stonewall Jackson, Turner Ashby and Robert E. Lee. This change led to a lawsuit by five students represented by the Virginia NAACP challenging the decision.
The NAACP said forcing black students to attend a school honoring confederates denies them equal opportunities to education and violates their First Amendment rights. With Western District of Virginia Senior Judge Michael Urbanski’s ruling, leaders of the Virginia NAACP said this was a big victory for their ongoing efforts.
Urbanski said in a legal opinion that he found forcing Stonewall Jackson high school students to be “mobile billboards” violated students’ constitutional rights. {snip}
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Urbanski wrote in his opinion that students believe wearing the “Stonewall Jackson Generals” or “Generals” names on their chest is attributing their hard work in academic or athletic activities to Stonewall Jackson, adding it is making students “become instruments for communicating the school board’s message.”
This school name has not only affected current students. Cathy Rec, a delegate candidate in the commonwealth’s 33rd district, said her daughter faced issues after graduating when she moved out of state and started applying for jobs.
“When she’d take her resume in to get good jobs, they’d look down, they say, ‘Yeah, OK, OK,’” Rec said. “Then they see that Stonewall Jackson High School, and all they thought was, ‘Oh, she’s racist.’”
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