A federal judge has ordered Shenandoah County to rename two schools after finding the school board’s 2024 decision to restore Confederate names discriminated against Black students. The court held that the restored names violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary must be renamed, and the board must select new names on a racially nondiscriminatory basis "with all deliberate speed." The Virginia NAACP, representing six students and their parents, called the ruling a decisive victory.
Federal Judge Orders Shenandoah County To Rename Two Schools, Saying Restored Confederate Names Discriminated Against Black Students
A statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee (Photo by Win McNamee/Getty Images)
A federal judge has ordered the Shenandoah County School Board to remove and replace two school names honoring Confederate figures, ruling that the board’s 2024 decision to restore those names discriminated against Black students and violated federal law.
Court Ruling and Legal Basis
In an opinion filed Thursday in U.S. District Court in Virginia, Judge Michael F. Urbanski found the board's May 2024 vote to reinstate the Confederate-era names violated the Equal Protection Clause of the 14th Amendment and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act. Urbanski described the restored names as lingering vestiges of the county’s segregationist past and said the board must select new names on a racially nondiscriminatory basis "with all deliberate speed."
"The Confederate names were restored with complete awareness of their historic legacy and ongoing discriminatory impact. In the court's view, the affirmative act of reinstating these vestiges of segregation is far more problematic than a passive failure to remove a long-standing name or symbol," Urbanski wrote.
What Names Are Affected
The dispute centers on Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School. Both had been renamed during the 2020 racial justice protests — to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary, respectively — but the Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 in May 2024 to restore the original Confederate-era names.
Who Brought the Case
The Virginia NAACP sued the school board the month after the 2024 vote on behalf of six students and their parents. The organization argued that reinstating names tied to Confederate leaders created a racially discriminatory educational environment and forced Black students — who make up under 3% of the district’s enrollment — to attend schools under symbols associated with the Confederacy and white supremacy.
Responses and Next Steps
Supporters of the board action said they were responding to community sentiment and sought to correct what they viewed as problems with the 2020 renaming process. The Virginia NAACP called the ruling a decisive victory, with state conference president Rev. Cozy Bailey saying that honoring Confederate leaders in schools is rooted in a broader history of racial discrimination.
The judge ordered the school board to choose new names on a racially nondiscriminatory basis and to do so swiftly. The ruling does not prescribe specific replacement names or an exact deadline beyond the court's instruction to act "with all deliberate speed," leaving the board responsible for implementing the changes consistent with the court's order.
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