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"The Virginia NAACP and five students are suing a school board that voted last month to restore the names of two schools previously named for Confederate leaders, saying the decision creates a discriminatory educational environment for Black students. The federal complaint filed Tuesday says the reversal denies Black students an equal opportunity to education by forcing them to attend a school named after Confederate leaders.
...“When students walk through the halls of renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, they will do so with inescapable reminders of Confederate legacies that enslaved and discriminated against African-descended people. This community deserves better,” the Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference, said in a statement about the lawsuit.
...The lawsuit, which NBC first reported, details the history of the school names and the student’s experiences. The high school named after Jackson in 1959 during a period of massive resistance to school integration. The lawsuit alleges that naming the school discriminates against Black students, as well as infringing on a students freedom of expression, by forcing them to engage with a message they do not support.
Brown, one of the student plaintiffs, attends the Massanutten Regional Governor’s School, which is housed in Mountain View High. In an interview, she said she doesn’t want to be a part of a school named after a Confederate leader but that leaving the prestigious program would hurt her academic record. She said it feels like slipping back to the old name was intended to make Black students feel unwelcomed."
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Makes sense. Why should students have these names, which represents a legacy that claimed they were someone else's property, be thrust upon them each day they walk through that school house door? It's dehumanizing.
...“When students walk through the halls of renamed Stonewall Jackson High School and Ashby Lee Elementary School, they will do so with inescapable reminders of Confederate legacies that enslaved and discriminated against African-descended people. This community deserves better,” the Rev. Cozy Bailey, president of the NAACP Virginia State Conference, said in a statement about the lawsuit.
...The lawsuit, which NBC first reported, details the history of the school names and the student’s experiences. The high school named after Jackson in 1959 during a period of massive resistance to school integration. The lawsuit alleges that naming the school discriminates against Black students, as well as infringing on a students freedom of expression, by forcing them to engage with a message they do not support.
Brown, one of the student plaintiffs, attends the Massanutten Regional Governor’s School, which is housed in Mountain View High. In an interview, she said she doesn’t want to be a part of a school named after a Confederate leader but that leaving the prestigious program would hurt her academic record. She said it feels like slipping back to the old name was intended to make Black students feel unwelcomed."
Link
Makes sense. Why should students have these names, which represents a legacy that claimed they were someone else's property, be thrust upon them each day they walk through that school house door? It's dehumanizing.
