In front of a lively crowd and after a long meeting, the Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 early Friday morning to restore the names of two schools on the southern end of the county that had been named after Confederate generals.
Voting “yes” to change Mountain View High School back to Stonewall Jackson High School and to change Honey Run Elementary School back to Ashby Lee Elementary School were Chairman Dennis Barlow, Brandi Rutz, Gloria Carlineo, Thomas Streett and Michael Rickard. Vice Chairman Kyle Gutshall was the lone "no" vote.
The exact language of the motion that was approved was: “I move that the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School be restored to the schools now named Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School respectively. The funds required to implement the restoration must be provided by private donations exclusively and not be borne by the school system or government tax funds, though the SCPS will oversee disbursements relating to restoration costs.”
Streett made the motion with Carlineo seconding it.
In 2020, the school board renamed the schools, both in Quicksburg, in an effort to condemn racism and affirm the school division’s commitment to an inclusive environment for all. Since that decision, two election cycles have brought in six new school board members.
Recently, a group called the Coalition for Better Schools asked the board to restore the old names, citing the need to remember the area’s Civil War history and a belief that the 2020 school board made the renaming decision in haste. In explaining the reasoning for their “yes” vote, most school board members said they believed the 2020 board had acted inappropriately in changing the names within a matter of days without enough community input.
Dozens of people addressed the school board on Thursday night at Peter Muhlenberg Middle School before the vote, which was held around 12:30 a.m. Friday. Each speaker was met with cheering and clapping from those who agreed with their point of view. Although it was a rowdy meeting, it rarely veered out of control and all but a handful of speakers respected the two-minute time limit.
A story, including photos, about the school board meeting and the decision will be posted to the Daily’s website on Friday afternoon and will appear in print on Monday.
(31) comments
Coming from someone who was originally opposed to the name changes I am disappointed in this decision. I've honestly looked at the decision deeper and feel changing the names was likely the best decision, all things considered. But I also realized the previous school board rammed it down the throats of our citizens so many were/are upset. But what concerns me most is what happens when the next board is elected? Or the one after that? What is this rears its head again? The portion in quotes, below, will likely no longer be true and again the citizens of Shen Co will be paying the extreme costs to change the names. I am in the "senior citizen" category and I grew up all of my life here in the south but it is time to do away with honoring the slave holding Civil War participants with the names of schools in this state.
"The funds required to implement the restoration must be provided by private donations exclusively and not be borne by the school system or government tax funds,"
EDIT: Meant that I looked deeper at the original decision to change the names. Should not post on so little sleep.
Chief, It’s so weird that you once supported everything but now you don’t. Every single topic of discussion that the general populace supports around here you once did, but now you don’t. Because of orange man?
At least he had saw how awful the orange man was and changed for the better. You, however were MAGA before there was MAGA.
seen not saw. Early morning
Don't be so flippant. Even at older ages we can evolve and change our minds or amend out opinions on things.
Chief, you’re nothing but a leftist psyop. You never were for anything. Classic play right from the book.
@ Kowalski. Those are certainly all words. Meaningless but words.
Oh, sweet summer child - the person who underwrote the challenges in Richmond has already offered to pay the cost. Also, the signage was never removed from the area and has been in storage, waiting for rescue, and will be put back up, again, by the county's "benefactor".
It’s uncontestable at this point in time that the BLM organization absconded with millions from corporations in the name of DEI. In your thinking you claim that by removing an individuals name that all will be made right going forward. Will the next step be to remove George Washington from our currency and every building in the country?
Stonewall Jackson Hifg School
Ashby Lee Elementary School
.
How wonderful. The school built during the height of the Jim Crow laws mean to be a “Whites Only” school has been returned to its former glory.
Honoring the Confederacy in 2024 based on a narrative of disinformation is a disgraceful action on the part of the 5 School Board members who spit in the face of those who most suffer under this odious legacy. As one speaker noted, the law of unintended consequences will soon enough rear its head.
I am a student from Stonewall Jackson High School class of '79. When I saw the SB had changed the name and the reasons for it, well it saddened me. I have lived my adult life with many nationalities and skin colors and never thought anything about it because we treated each other as equals. History and its remembrance of both the good and bad things is important. But to shun something because a perspective changed suddenly well it is never a good thing. I know because I have lived through such things in my 63 years of life. If you take the ideology of the previous SB to its logical conclusion we need to rename the capitol of our nation and the monument we erected to the first president and general of our nation. He and his family owned slaves.
What most of you folks forget is that the slave trade has been with us since before Christ. The slaves we talk about were captured by other black tribes and used as slaves. The Moors in the Med were constantly attacking ships and enslaving white Europeans. Then when the New World was founded Slavery was imported with trade goods only to find even the New World already had slavery from one tribe winning over another and putting the prisoners into slavery too.
Instead of looking for reasons to eliminate historical names Look towards why those names were originally used. Stonewall Jackson was a superb military leader who caused his troops to literally stand as a wall and fight. The rally cries were, Look at Jackson's troops they are standing like a stonewall." He bred that bravery into his troops and often they were called to hold strategic points in the battlefields. That was how he got his name, Stonewall Jackson. Bring that aspect to the school's heritage. Breed that into our students. The idea of never giving up on standing tall for what you believe and ignoring others about you as you stand your ground and find the strength to overcome the tendency to fall back to retreat from a conflict.
Allow all persons to learn this wonderful nature and to use it in their lives so as to not only survive but to excel as someone who stands tall and gets the job done no matter what it takes to do so. Teach our students the strength behind their school's name and teach them how to leverage it into their own lives. Instead of showing them how to blame everyone and everything for their inability or inadequacies in achieving goals.
Indeed. Stand tall for hate and the right to hold fellow humans in bondage. Wonderful mentoring of our youth.
Is that the same ideology you feel we should share about Hitler? Should we name schools after him and then teach students "the strength behind their name and leverage it in their own lives"?
"Instead of showing them how to blame everyone and everything for their inability or inadequacies in achieving goals."
I think your last sentence betrays a profound misunderstanding or mischaracterization of the issue. Nobody is blaming the presence of these names for poor performance. We're saying it sends a message that the ancestor who fought to keep people enslaved is more important than the ancestors who were enslaved, and it's an insult to the ancestors of the latter as they have to walk beneath those names and though those halls and attend those events. It's a statement of the board's values and, by extension, the community's. You say he should be an inspiration as someone who stood strong in the face of tough odds, but ignore what it was he was fighting to defend.
I will grant you, however, there is a conversation to be had about what is the logical conclusion of removing honorifics to those who enslaved other people. This is a topic about what to name the yet-to-be rebuilt Key Bridge in Baltimore. It's a conversation that has been happening around Thomas Jefferson as well, and logically could also be happening for George Washington (as you said) and even someone as "inoffensive" as Benjamin Franklin (yes, even he owned slaves at one point). Indeed, where do we draw the line? Personally, I draw it at fighting to split the country to defend the ability to enslave other people, and I reject efforts to romanticize or whitewash what that was. Clearly, there is disagreement on that.
Yesterday in Woodstock, the vote was carried by those who share your perspective. That's democracy and local politics. I respect the process, even if I don't agree with the reasoning behind it.
Well thought out
This decision is nothing short of a denial of the humanity and dignity of African Americans. Jim Crow lives on in the hearts of the School Board.
Who knew we could combine handing out participation trophies with policies that will keep city folk from buying homes in the Valley and driving up property values? The school board knew, that's who!
Seriously, this is a sad and disappointing move that is bringing international attention to the valley in a negative light. Don't be surprised if it impacts tourism and investment, nevermind students' sense of worth and belonging.
Sad.
What an ignorant, lamentable decision by the Board. A Mountain View is a beautiful thing, whereas Stonewall Jackson, Lee, and the confederacy were and remain national embarrassments. Not only did these men fight to keep people enslaved, but they were traitors in doing so, and they lost. Badly. Congratulations on restoring a monument to bigots, traitors, and losers. Enjoy the international scorn and derision directed your way, which is well-deserved.
I predict it's going to be economically disastrous for the county. No person or business is going to relocate here, knowing that we have chosen to honor white supremacists, but maybe that's by design. There was a row of high school students sitting behind me and obviously they were extremely disappointed and one of them said "this is why almost all of us leave this place." I implored her and her friends to go off and get their education, see the world but then come back and vote these people out of office, because this is their home and they're the ones who need to design their own future.
Where’d your last poster child go? The one you and Atwood pulled out of the weeds and paraded around as victim numero uno? So stunning, so brave, she was. Where was she for this? When you say “leave and come back” do you mean like “Valley Native”, a guy who spent his entire life in the swamp and misses it so bad now that he’s retired? We’re taking control of our future and our past back.
This coming from a small town white nationalist cop.
I’m not sure who you think I am, but I’m not that guy. 😂
Speaking of the Swamp, here's your hero's record draining it.
https://reason.com/2024/05/08/trump-promised-to-drain-the-swamp-he-did-the-opposite/
Yeah, he’s the lesser of two evils but I do love me some Trump Derangement Syndrome. Haven’t seen the indivisibles out much, waving the signs for the most popular President ever with the strongest economy ever. Youse guys ok?
Yes you are who I characterize your personna. You use the same words
And phrases as he did when he posted in
the NVD under his real name. Maybe you missed it but the stock market has hit an all time high and has doubled under Biden. Doesn't get played in your echo chamber.
And Indivisbles really irritated you. If and when we show up you will be on Court Square assailing us with crude and obscene language.
It was comical. I’d ride by in my work truck and marvel at the number of angry boomers with nothing else to do than to cry about their gal losing an election. The last 4 years showed that’s all they were; a group of sore losers because I have yet to see them out there championing the accomplishments an Alzheimer’s patient. If using similar words leads you to assume I’m someone, I’ve given you too much credit at critical thinking. I’d fail the Pepsi challenge at guessing which member of the SD was posting as you, too, all sound the same.
Robert Watson, an assistant professor of history at Hampton University, a historically Black university in Virginia, said he can't recall another instance of a school reversing course after dropping its Confederate namesake. He said there have been efforts in Florida to restore the names of some public buildings.
"If it does get traction in the Shenandoah Valley, it probably will get some traction and other places," he said.
One can only hope!
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