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Plan: Richmond’s Lee statue would be cut apart, reassembled

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — The state of Virginia plans to remove the large statue of Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee on Richmond’s Monument Avenue by cutting it into three sections and then reassembling it elsewhere.

The Richmond Times-Dispatch reports that statue’s removal still depends on a court’s approval.

But in the meantime, the state has been figuring out how it could deconstruct the sculpture.

A state review board recently approved a plan that calls for a crane to remove the 21-foot statue from its 40-foot pedestal. The bronze statue would then be taken apart because it’s too tall to go under bridges.

A conservation firm said the entire process will leave “little evidence of cutting and reassembly.”

School bus emergency? Fairfax County students have a plan to handle it

This story is part of WTOP’s 2026 Back to School coverage. The wheels on the bus will soon be going round and round again in Fairfax County, Virginia, and some of its young riders are learning what to do if there’s an emergency on the way to school. The annual Safety Patrol Training Camp, hosted by Fairfax County Public Schools' Office of Transportation Services, combined hands-on exercises with classroom lessons to teach students how to keep calm during emergencies on buses. The training can feel remarkably realistic, with overturned school buses on their side or completely upside down in the middle of the county bus depot. Other buses, right side up, fill with smoke that is water-based but mimics the intensity of a bus overheating.
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