Public Split On Removing Confederate Name From School

FALLS CHURCH, VA -- The debate of removing Confederate Gen. J.E.B. Stuart's name from a Fairfax County School has resulted in polarized reactions on both sides.

A Tuesday night meeting was filled with outbursts and strong opinions on both sides, WTOP reported. Some of the interruptions included a woman holding a protest sign and an audience member interrupting a speaker, calling his statements "half truths."

Harriet “Ozzi” Mast, an alumna and teacher at J.E.B. Stuart High School, said, “It was named J.E.B. Stuart because that was where he fought around here,” “Nobody thought …’Yay, J.E.B. Stuart’ because he was a Confederate general.”

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But student John Lesko argued he fought for slavery. “It’s like if we had a murderer in front of a trial and we said, ‘He’s a good man, we promise. He might have killed someone, but he’s a good man,'” he said.

A Fairfax County School Board working group is looking at how much the public would support a name change. In a survey conducted in May 2016, the school board found 56 percent of over 3,400 responders do not support the name change. The consideration comes after school board emails revealed that removing the Confederate name could cost $1 million. The school board will vote on the name change in June.

The public meeting is the second within one week. The school has also launched bus tours to historical sites to learn about Gen. Stuart with Civil War historians, WUSA9 reported.

“People are very polarized on both sides,” student Victoria Haver told WUSA9. “It's either, 'you're a racist and a bigot because you don't want the name changed,' or 'you hate America and you hate our history, because you do want it changed.'”

The school came under the spotlight in 2015 when students started a petition to change the name to Thurgood Marshall High School, which caught the attention of celebrities. Actress Julianne Moore and producer Bruce Cohen, both J.E.B. Stuart graduates, wrote in a Change.org petition, "Today, this school is attended by a diverse group of students who should not have to attend a school that bears the name of a man who fought to keep African Americans enslaved."

Do you support the name change of J.E.B. Stuart High School? Let us know in the comments.

Image via Fairfax County Public Schools