JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — A sign in front of a Florida school named after a Confederate general has been vandalized.
The Florida Times-Union reports that someone pried most of the metal letters off both sides of the brick sign in front of Jacksonville’s Robert E. Lee High School late Saturday. Police say they also sprayed the word “racist” on it.
NEW: Robert E. Lee High School sign vandalized in Jacksonville. https://t.co/fWB3UedqhE pic.twitter.com/q1SR4WTk8z
— Gene Wexler (@GeneWexler) August 24, 2017
Principal Scott Schneider wrote in a message to parents that they were working to fix the sign. The vandalism follows the removal of Confederate statues and monuments around the country. A renewed interest in removing the symbols comes after violent clashes at a white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, left one dead and scores injured.
In 2014, the school district changed the name of a school named after Nathan Bedford Forrest, a Confederate general and founder of the Ku Klux Klan.
