A federal judge has ordered a Virginia school board to replace the Confederate names it restored to two public schools, ruling that the decision discriminated against Black students. U.S. District Judge Michael F. Urbanski found that the Shenandoah County School Board violated the 14th Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.
The board voted 5-1 in 2024 to change Mountain View High School back to Stonewall Jackson High School and Honey Run Elementary School back to Ashby-Lee Elementary School. The earlier names had been removed in 2020 during nationwide protests over racial injustice.
The Virginia NAACP filed the lawsuit for six students and their parents. According to The Associated Press, the judge said restoring names tied to Confederate officers revived symbols connected to the county’s history of segregated schools and created a discriminatory impact on Black students.
The court directed the board to choose new names on a racially nondiscriminatory basis as quickly as possible. The Virginia NAACP called the ruling a major victory, while board members who supported the Confederate names previously said they were responding to community sentiment and correcting what they viewed as a flawed 2020 process.
Source: The Associated Press, August 7, 2026.
