The purge of history continues.
Via Washington Post:
One of the nation’s largest school districts has amended its school-naming policy, opening the door for changes to schools that honor Confederate generals and evoke the school system’s legacy of resisting integration.
Students, community members and alumni in Fairfax County have been agitating to change the names of two high schools named for Confederate generals — J.E.B. Stuart and Robert E. Lee — and a third honoring a past superintendent, W.T. Woodson, who was an opponent of desegregation.
The school board voted unanimously Thursday to alter the policy that barred officials from changing the names of school buildings unless the building was repurposed. Under the new policy, the board also can change a name “where some other compelling need exists.”
Those who lined up to speak in favor of changing the names linked to the Confederacy and segregation said they definitely have a “compelling need.”
Lee and Stuart high schools opened in the late 1950s, as Fairfax County battled desegregation orders. Many believe that the naming of the schools for Confederate generals was a way to send a message to black students that they were not welcome. Stuart did not admit black students until 1961.
“Make no mistake; J.E.B. Stuart High School was not named to honor a Confederate general’s role in the Civil War,” said Stephen Spitz, a neighborhood resident who has litigated school desegregation cases. “The school was named as part of Virginia’s massive resistance to school integration.”
Lidia Amanuel, 17, a Stuart senior and an Eritrean immigrant, said the school’s name disgusts her and her classmates, who are part of the most diverse high school in the county.
“This change is imperative to revise the original message that was sent to the people of color,” Amanuel said. “My values are challenged when I am forced to celebrate the Confederacy to express the love of my school.”