A federal judge has sided with the Virginia NAACP in its lawsuit against a county school board’s reinstatement of Confederate military names to two schools, saying the decision discriminates against Black students. In an opinion filed Thursday, U.S. District Court Judge Michael F. Urbanski said the school board in Shenandoah County violated Black students’ rights under the 14th Amendment’s equal protection clause. The judge argued unlike a memorial with a Confederate figure's name, schools are places where children should have an “environment free of racial discrimination. In 2024, the school board reversed a 2020 decision to rename two schools. Board members moved to restore Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary.
