Last month, the Shenandoah County School Board voted to restore the Confederate names of Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School.
According to USA Today, a 5-1 vote restored Mountain View High School to Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary School to Ashby-Lee Elementary School. A local conservative group wrote to the school board in April arguing that the names honor the history of the community.
Stonewall Jackson was a Confederate leader from Virginia who became known at the first Battle of Bull Run. Robert E. Lee commanded the Army of Northern Virginia, which was the most successful confederate army during the Civil War.
This decision is currently the first in the country, but it could influence other school districts to do the same, as Robert Watson told USA Today.
“If it does get traction in the Shenandoah Valley, it probably will get some traction in other places,” he explained.
Recall, George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary were renamed in 2021 due to the figures’ connections to slavery; George Mason and Thomas Jefferson both owned slaves.
According to WUSA9, although our name went against public support, the Falls Church City School Board still felt the urge to change the names of the schools. Meanwhile, CNN stated that district documents from 2021 showed that the district estimated spending more than $304,000 to change the two school names.
Many students feel strongly about the thought of the possibility of a change.
“It was a trend at the time to name schools after people in history. But I mean,[Meridian], is a relevant name and it makes sense. We rebranded and now it feels like it’s just an extra waste of money,” sophomore Rion Miller said.
Not only the thought of spending large amounts of money affects students, but the idea of being in a school named after people who owned slaves bothers students.
“It would be really bad if they changed it back to George Mason. They did so much work with the school board and voting, as well as just building a new school…I think it would be really bad to change and also with the racial discrimination behind George Mason’s history…Especially for what we do with the IB curriculum and what we work for. It’s unethical to support such a name,” said junior Nora Stufft.
While there currently is no move to change Meridian or Oak Street back to their original names, the move in Shenandoah County could cause a ripple effect across the county and state lines, affecting the lives of students, teachers, and community members.
