When teachers in Charlottesville, Virginia, faced the first day of school nearly two months ago, they were reeling from the violence of the “Unite the Right” rally 11 days earlier, on August 12, when white supremacists descended on the college town to protest the planned removal of a statue of Robert E. Lee from a downtown park. One demonstrator rammed his car into a crowd of counter-protestors, killing 32-year-old Heather Heyer. Dozens more were injured in that incident and others.

Last week bro…