Board picks new name for school that had Confederate name

ARLINGTON, Va. – A school board in northern Virginia has picked a new name for a school that had been named for Confederate general Robert E. Lee.

News outlets report that Washington-Lee High School will now be known as Washington-Liberty High School.

The Arlington County school board voted 5-0 in favour of the name change Thursday evening. The board had voted in June to rename the school but had not picked a name.

A judge last month tossed out a lawsuit that sought to block the school board from taking Lee’s name off the high school.

Confederate symbols have come under increased scrutiny ever since a violent 2017 rally in Charlottesville, as well as the 2015 massacre of nine black worshippers inside a South Carolina church.