A Virginia school board has voted to restore the names of Confederate generals to two local schools four years after the names were scrapped.

During the violent BLM riots of 2020, the Shenandoah County School Board voted to rename two schools that were named after Confederate generals in what is now being called a “knee-jerk” reaction.

Specifically, Stonewall Jackson High School (named after Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson) was renamed Mountain View High School, and Ashby-Lee Elementary School (named after Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby) was renamed Honey Run Elementary School.

Two years later the board voted 3-3 to keep the new names. However, since 2022, the three board members who voted to keep the new names have left and been replaced by less radical people, according to Harrisonburg public-radio station WMRA.

Now fast-forward to last Thursday, when the Shenandoah County School Board held a hearing to reconsider reverting the renamed schools back to their original names.

A number of viewpoints were heard Thursday — some for the proposal, others against it.

Pro Reverting The Names Back

“I can stand here today and believe firmly that there was not an issue one with our school’s name as Stonewall Jackson High School,” one supporter said. “It was never about hate or slavery or injustice for anyone.”

“As a taxpayer of this county and a U.S. Citizen, I am tired of all the woke individuals who are eating away at our values, our morals and our God-fearing way of life,” another supporter said.

Against Reverting The Names Back

“A majority of the student body and faculty wish for this debate to end and for people to move on with the current names,” one opponent argued. “Students including myself will be applying to colleges in the next few years and incredibly controversial names like Stonewall Jacksons do no good on college applications.”

“I would be ashamed to live in a county that looks backward instead of forward,” another opponent said. “That sides with a misguided nostalgia over showing compassion and justice.”

The majority of the board for their part drew attention to the fact that the proposal’s opponents have had nothing to say about other schools that “still bear the names of historic figures who owned enslaved people — including the namesake of Peter Muhlenberg Middle School, where Thursday’s meeting convened,” according to station WBUR.

“So I think all of this was politically driven,” board member Michael Rickard said.

Richard added that the board had received 118 emails from opponents of the proposal but a whopping 114 emails from supporters.

The only board member to vote against the proposal was chair Kyle Gutshall.

“Things like this really come down to perspective and, and how you view things,” he said Thursday. “Two years ago when I voted to change the name back, the outcome and the feedback that I received was quite different.”

“Ultimately, for me, it’s a very tough decision,” he continued, claiming that most of the district’s inhabitants have “been overwhelmingly in support of retaining the names the way they are.”

On the social media platform X meanwhile, leftists — especially white, female ones — are losing their minds over the board’s latest vote.

Look:

5 members of that board are racist rednecks. Hope they feel ridiculed the remainder of their hateful lives.

— Tina McD5 (@TinaMcDermott5) May 11, 2024

If they lived in Germany, they’d prob want to name a local high school after Hitler bc “it’s part of our history.”

— brettd65 (@brettd65) May 11, 2024

I’m unprivating to say this, but as someone born and raised in Shenandoah County, to the school board members who will vote to return to Confederate-era names: you represent everything wrong with that county. Others try to make it better while you do racist crap like this.

— Kit Bauserman (@kitbauserman) May 10, 2024

I am the angriest because once again the regressive fools on the school board overrode the student’s will.
Can you imagine applying to colleges in the 2020s & beyond with the stain of a loser Confederate general’s name as your high school?
Me either.

— S. Olson B.S. J.D. (@THEVDOVault) May 12, 2024

Shenandoah County, your name is now the Racist Shenandoah County. You have beautiful scenery, but you’ll be forever known for this. #shenandoahcounty https://t.co/8aJ053TVMh https://t.co/hU2O70A00D

— Jenifer Lanes (@LovesCheese1) May 10, 2024

Yet among all the noise, much of it from white liberals, there was some sense and logic.

Case in point:

I’m black and I support the name being changed back.

— Kristopher J. Anderson (@KAndersonAkron) May 11, 2024

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Vivek Saxena

Senior Staff Writer
Vivek@bizpacreview.com

V. Saxena is a staff writer for BizPac Review with a decade of experience as a professional writer, and a lifetime of experience as an avid news junkie. He holds a degree in computer technology from Purdue University.

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