National issues go local

During his campaign for governor in fall 2021, Republican Glenn Youngkin released a TV ad that featured a parent who said her son, a senior in high school, had had nightmares after reading Toni Morrison’s “Beloved,” a novel about a dysfunctional family of formerly enslaved people. His opponent, Terry McAuliffe, accused Youngkin of using a “racist dog whistle.” 

Students, administrators and teachers at Rockbridge County High weren’t immune from the divisive politics. 

In November 2021, a white student used a racial slur to threaten to lynch a Black student on a school bus. The Black student was suspended for punching the white student. But her suspension was vacated after her parents complained, Bradley, the Latin teacher, said.  

Craft, the high school principal, said the incident was investigated. But he said administrators couldn’t take action because the hate speech was not reported through the school’s official channels.

Within weeks, three students played the Nazi anthem on YouTube in a classroom while holding up photos of swastikas on their phones and mimicking the Nazi salute. The students were suspended, pending expulsion in 2021. School officials declined to say whether the students were expelled, citing privacy laws.

The next day, a student brought a gun and three magazines of ammunition to the high school in his backpack. The student was arrested and taken to a juvenile detention a facility. Timothy Martino, an assistant superintendent, declined to say what happened to the student.

Since then, Bradley, the Latin teacher, says tensions with parents and administrators have eased, settling into a period of “inertia.”   

“Some folks just aren't ready,” he said. “There's a little bit of fear that if administration or school board gets out in front [of changes], they'll face backlash.”

But there’s still tension among students. Saara Basuchoudhary, a senior at Rockbridge County High School, says she noticed the prevalence of Confederate flags, accompanied by racist comments in classrooms and hallways, when she started at the high school in 2019.  

That’s one of the reasons why she says she and her friends founded the Student Association for Non-Discrimination (STAND) in 2020.

 “We saw a lot of Confederate symbols in our school, and we definitely wanted to address them, at the very least. We were hoping to ban them,” she said. “But the community mindset has to change. So, we're working on the education aspect of that.” 

STAND members met with high school administrators throughout the past academic year to give presentations about the Lost Cause, the myth that the Civil War was not about slavery. The students in the group also recommended people of color who they think should be highlighted in history classes. 

In Fall 2022, the high school began offering an elective course focused on African American history that drew 30 students in the 2022-2023 school year.  

McCown, who ran for school board and lost in 2021, says she doesn’t have a problem with the African American history course because she doesn’t think it includes critical race theory. “I think the issue happens whenever we assign guilt,” she said. “And that's kind of the underlaying of critical race theory is saying, ‘You're automatically oppressed, and you're automatically privileged.’” 

McCown said parents want the high school to offer courses from “different perspectives as well.” 

“I would love to see a history course for women. Let's learn about an immigrant history course,” McCown said. “I think if we're going to do it for one group, then let's learn about all groups.”

The Rev. Reginald Early, the president of the Rockbridge NAACP, said Confederate flags intimidate students of color.

Saara Basuchoudhary (Photo by Lily Mott)

“The Confederate flag promotes hate,” he said, “and the Confederacy was written, or came about, because of slavery. So it was about slavery, and about suppression, and about hate.” 

Early says Black teachers don’t want to work in the area’s schools because of the perception that it’s a place where the Confederacy is celebrated. There are no Black teachers or administrators in city schools, he said. The high school hired one Black administrator in August 2022 to serve as head coach of athletics.

“Students do much better, academically and socially, when they see persons of color in the classroom, and not just in subordinate positions,” Early said. “It will prepare them for when they go out into the real world and see other persons of color who are in positions of authority.” 

But Bradley, the faculty sponsor of STAND, says students of color can’t escape discrimination at Rockbridge County High School. There are overt acts of harassment or slurs, he said, and there are more “passive” incidents.  

“They see Confederate symbols a lot,” he said. “Someone's not saying something to them, but in the atmosphere, in the culture of the school, it's still there.”  

McCown says banning Confederate flags is “a good way to tick off every parent in the county.” 

“Most of the people that live in the city of Lexington are not originally from Rockbridge County,” she said. “When you go into the county, that's when you find, ‘My family has been here for 300 years. We can trace it.’ So they feel like they're being shut out.” 

Principal Craft said the African American history course’s creation didn’t attract much attention because the high school doesn’t go out of its way to announce the courses it’s offering. But all courses are listed on the Program of Studies that’s publicly accessible on the school’s website. 

“We don't want to go out there like we're doing this to make the public happy,” he said. “We're doing this so our students have the opportunity to take the course.”