Mountain View High School will soon be known by its old name: Stonewall Jackson High School. The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to once again honor the Confederate general, whose name was originally attached to the school during the battle against racial segregation.
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Mountain View High School will soon be known by its old name: Stonewall Jackson High School. The Shenandoah County School Board voted 5-1 to once again honor the Confederate general, whose name was originally attached to the school during the battle against racial segregation.
Google Maps/Screenshot by NPR
The Shenandoah County, Virginia, school board will restore the names of Confederate generals Thomas “Stonewall” Jackson, Robert E. Lee and Turner Ashby to two local schools. This controversial turnaround comes almost four years after the name change.
Mountain View High School will revert to its former name, Stonewall Jackson High School, and Honey Run Elementary School will revert to Ashby-Lee Elementary School.
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The board approved the change by a 5-1 vote, with supporters saying the names of Confederate figures were removed from schools in 2020 in a “knee-jerk” reaction amid protests over the police killing of George Floyd . But opponents — including some current students — warned the board that Confederate names would brand the schools and their county as a haven for racist and backward thinking.
The debate over the name change began last month. As member station WMRA reports, this was the second attempt to restore the names, following an unsuccessful attempt in 2022.
During the long and contentious meeting, advocates on both sides drew loud cheers and ovations from their supporters. The public session began around 7 p.m. ET on Thursday and continued into the early hours of Friday.
Here’s what the students said
A handful of students attended the meeting, several of whom said the current names represent inclusion and progress and should be kept.
“School board minutes from 1959 reveal that the decision to name our school after Stonewall Jackson was the product of massive resistance,” said student Pria Dua, referring to a time when leaders of Virginia were aggressively fighting attempts at racial integration in the state’s schools.
Like some of the other students who spoke, Dua is taking classes at Mountain View High School as part of her program at Massanutten Regional Governor’s School (a program that attracts students from several school systems).
“I recognize that the community remained divided and unhappy with the initial name change,” Dua said. But she asked the board: “As we take this step back in 2024, which foot do we put forward? What legacy are you leaving behind for my generation?”
Another student, Eden Shelhamer, criticized the board for investing time and energy in what she called a “clearly controversial argument” at the expense of important issues, while also appearing to refuse to take take into account the opinions of students.
“The fact that this discussion is receiving disproportionate attention from the county deeply disappoints me,” she said, “and makes me question whether we are acting in the best interests of our students or in the preservation of the pride of our parents.
Aliyah Ogle, a Black eighth-grader and three-sport athlete for Mountain View High School, discussed the possibility of having to compete under the name Stonewall Jackson.
“I should represent a man who fought for my ancestors to become slaves,” she said, adding that she would feel like she was disrespecting both her ancestors and her family’s values .
“It is your duty to make our schools a place where all students are valued and respected,” Ogle said. She later added: “If this board decides to reinstate the names, I would not feel valued and respected and you would not be doing your job.” »
Other students spoke in favor of changing the schools’ names.
“My last name goes back six generations of conservative farmers in this county,” Trey Heishman said, adding that his family — and he — paid their taxes.
Heishman said he is about to graduate from Mountain View — but, he added, “I hope my classmates who are freshmen at the school can see that the name has been changed and that they will be able to graduate under SJHS.”
Carter Heishman, an eighth-grader who is an athlete and member of the Future Farmers of America, also asked the board to restore Stonewall Jackson’s name.
“I’d like to have a name that I’m proud of,” he said. “Not only do I want my FFA jacket to say Stonewall when I enter high school, but I would also like my jerseys – which I wear year round – to say Stonewall.”
Invoking a long and complicated history
Residents in favor of returning Confederate names included Stuart Didawick, who emphasized that his family’s roots run deep in the community, where his ancestors received land grants in the decades before the American Revolution.
“When you vote on restoring the name, will you listen to the opinions of woke outsiders who mostly have no connection to the land, history or culture of this county?” Didawick asked board members. “Or will you listen to the voices of the people who elected you to represent them, the people whose families have built and sustained this county for generations?”
“We are the majority,” Didawick said, “this is how government works.”
He added, “This council has a moral and ethical obligation to the citizens you represent to undo the dirtiest, most underhanded political stunt in the political history of Shenandoah County.”
But another citizen who spoke was Stephanie Bullock Smith, a black woman who graduated from Stonewall Jackson High School in 1983. It’s time to move on, she told the board.
“Please don’t go back into history,” she said. “We don’t need it. Our kids don’t need it either.”
The council speaks
Several board members who favor returning the names to their Confederate eponyms said that in the debate over the legacy of slavery and racism, critics have seemingly ignored school buildings that still bear the names of historical figures who owned slaves – including Peter’s namesake. Muhlenberg Middle School, where Thursday’s meeting was held.
“So I think this whole thing was politically motivated,” said board member Michael Rickard.
Board members said they received hundreds of emails from constituents regarding the names. Rickard held up a stack of what he said were about 260 emails.
“I asked 118 of you to vote to keep the names as they are,” he said. “But I asked 144 of you to restore the names.”
Kyle Gutshall, vice president of the board who also attends James Madison University, was the only member to vote against reinstating Confederate names.
The name issue, he said, is “clearly a very difficult and controversial issue that we have been working on for 2 to 4 years.”
“Things like this really depend on perspective and how you see things,” he said.
“Two years ago, when I voted to change the name, the outcome and the feedback I received was very different,” Gutshall said. But, he added, as time goes on, it seems some of his constituents no longer care as much about the issue.
“At the end of the day, for me, it’s a very difficult decision,” he said, describing the efforts to get public input. Although he has his own beliefs on the issue, Gutshall said his district “has been overwhelmingly in favor of keeping the names as they are.”
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