The Shenandoah County School Board argued in court Friday for dismissing a lawsuit by the NAACP, after the board reinstated two Confederate school names. WMRA’s Bridget Manley reports.
The Shenandoah County School Board filed the motion to dismiss last July after being sued by five students and the NAACP in June. The board had made national news for reverting the names back to their former Confederate names.
In 2020, the school board voted to change the names of Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School to Mountain View High School and Honey Run Elementary School. The lawsuit alleges that by reverting to the Confederate names, the school board violated the student’s First Amendment and Fourteenth Amendment rights, as well as their statutory rights under the Equal Educational Opportunities Act and Title VI of the Civil Rights Act.
The lawsuit relies on the historical context in which Stonewall Jackson High School was built and named during a period of “Massive Resistance” in Virginia following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Brown v. Board of Education, which outlawed segregation.
Marja Plater, one of the plaintiffs' attorneys, cited this historical context during the hearing, and also the statements made by Shenandoah County board members when they first decided to change the school names in 2020. The board members acknowledged then that naming the schools to honor Confederate generals had conveyed racially discriminatory messages.
Plater argued that the 2020 acknowledgment should be sufficient to prevent the dismissal of the case and allow for discovery, as the harm caused by the names was foreseeable.
RYAN DOWNER: Several members of the school board said at the time that the reason they were doing it [changing the names] was because the original school names were discriminatory. The reason they were doing it was because they reflected a legacy of discrimination and segregation.
Ryan Downer is the legal director at the Washington Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs. Following the hearing, he reiterated the school board's 2020 statements as cause to proceed.
DOWNER: So, to have the same defendant four years later revert to those school names…I think we have made the argument that the reversion to that pre-2020 state was essentially embracing the legacy and the history of segregation that those school names represent.
Much of the lawsuit claims that students' rights would be violated while participating in school activities. According to the plaintiffs, students wearing uniforms bearing Confederate names would have their rights violated, and those who refused to comply would face harassment or lose educational opportunities.
Jim Guynn, an attorney for the school board, called those complaints speculative. He said a Google search of the Stonewall Jackson uniforms showed nothing Confederate about them, and none of the plaintiffs had suffered harm due to the name change. Guynn also asserted that he didn’t think by playing a sport, players would be promoting the ideas of Stonewall Jackson, making note of other schools – like Duke and Carnegie Melon – named for people with problematic histories.
Attorney Li Reed, also representing the plaintiffs, disagreed, stating that while the name “Stonewall Jackson” does not appear on football uniforms, it does appear on cheerleading uniforms. Reed also argued that students are associated with Stonewall Jackson by virtue of playing on the team, scoring points, and winning games.
Guynn also argued that the democratic process, in which the public voted in members to do the will of the people, was successful. Reed also disputed that argument, saying individual rights are still protected, even when people vote for change.
The Rev. Cozy Bailey is the president of the Virginia NAACP. He expressed optimism following the hearing.
REV. COZY BAILEY: I think the intensity and depth of the questions that the judge was asking was very good because it helped to tease out all of the details and what, I believe, the weight the suit has. From that standpoint, I am optimistic. I won’t make any predictions, but I am very optimistic about what his decision will be.
U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski said he would issue a written decision on the motion to dismiss “as soon as I can.” If the case is not dismissed, the trial against the school board will begin in July 2025.
Listen to Embattled Legacies, WMRA’s four-part series on the history of massive resistance in Virginia and the legacy of the Shenandoah County Confederate school names.
Read the lawsuit filed by the NAACP here.
