WILLIAMSBURG, Va. - The Williamsburg James City County School Board voted Tuesday night to change the name of Rawls Byrd Elementary. The vote passed with six votes for and one vote against the name change. Now, the board will begin the process of changing the name.
A petition on change.org and hearing from those in support of changing the name of Rawls Byrd Elementary School because of Byrd's racist and antagonistic behavior toward non-whites and his disregard of Federal law to integrate schools.
the school board launched into discussions of how to make that change happen. The board discussed developing surveys to ask the public whether they wanted the name change, costs of the name change for physical items including signs, floors the mascot and more.
After numerous changes to the motion and plenty of debate, the board voted to change the name of Rawls Byrd Elementary and to start the process of that name change. Something Edith Heard and her friends have been fighting for.
"I just believe that our kids need to know true heroes, people that really contribute to the community and note people that tried to destroy other ethnic groups," said Heard.
The school board also has to work on the policy of how to go about changing the name since it hasn't been done before. The board has been given information and sample policies from other school districts to help form a policy of their own.
While the board passed the motion to change the name, it is still unclear when that change will take place.
