Federal judge rules Shenandoah County School Board violated civil rights by restoring Confederate school names

HARRISONBURG, Va. (WHSV) - A federal judge has ruled that the Shenandoah County School Board violated the U.S. Constitution and federal civil rights laws when it voted in 2024 to restore the Confederate names of two public schools, concluding the decision discriminated against Black students and perpetuated the legacy of segregation.

In a 141-page opinion issued Thursday, Senior U.S. District Judge Michael Urbanski found the board’s decision to reinstate the names Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby-Lee Elementary School violated the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Equal Educational Opportunities Act.

The ruling follows a five-day bench trial 8 months ago, brought by the Virginia State Conference NAACP and several students and families after the school board voted in May 2024 to reverse its 2020 decision removing the Confederate names. The board had originally retired the names as part of a resolution condemning racism and committing the division to a more inclusive school environment.

Urbanski emphasized the case was not about whether Confederate leaders should be remembered in history but whether restoring their names to public schools violated federal law.

“This is not a case about the appropriate legacy of the three Confederate officers for whom the schools were named,” Urbanski wrote. “The issues to be decided here are entirely legal in nature.”

The judge concluded the evidence showed the original names were tied to Virginia’s era of school segregation and Massive Resistance to desegregation. He found the 2024 board knowingly reinstated symbols that continue to have discriminatory effects on Black students.

By reversing this decision, Urbanski noted the students were suing due to the sudden 2024 reversal of the school boards own decision four years before. Not just to change a school name that had been continuously in place for many years.

Throughout the opinion, Urbanski cited testimony from students, parents and historians who described the names as reminders of discrimination and exclusion. He found the plaintiffs presented “credible and compelling” evidence supporting each of their claims, while determining the school board’s evidence was “neither fully credible nor persuasive” on the issues of discriminatory intent and impact.

The opinion also noted the 2024 school board members invoked legislative privilege during discovery, declining to answer questions about their motivations for restoring the names. While the judge said he drew no adverse inference from that decision, he relied on public statements, meeting records and other evidence presented during the trial.

Urbanski stressed that federal courts generally defer to local school boards but have a duty to intervene when constitutional rights are violated.

“When a local school board commits an action that amounts to a constitutional violation, there is no doubt that federal courts have authority to grant appropriate relief,” Urbanski wrote.

In the closing pages of the opinion, the judge wrote that schools occupy a unique place in American society and that students deserve an educational environment free from the vestiges of racial discrimination.

“Education ... is the very foundation of good citizenship,” Urbanski wrote, quoting the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v. Board of Education decision. He said the ruling recognizes the importance of providing children an equal opportunity to learn “in an educational environment free of vestiges of racial discrimination.”

Urbanski said a separate order addressing remedies will be issued.