At least 44 schools in San Francisco may change their names — as the historical figures after whom they were named are believed to be associated with slavery, genocide and colonization.
The list of schools recommended for renaming was compiled by the San Francisco School Names Advisory Committee.
According to SF Chronicle sources, his criteria included: «everyone who was directly involved in colonization, was associated with any violation of human rights or the environment, as well as slave owners , racists and white supremacists.»
These schools included Abraham Lincoln High School, George Washington High School, Roosevelt High School, Jefferson Elementary School and Diana Feinstein Elementary School. In particular, the committee associates Lincoln with the oppression of Native Americans, while Feinstein was included in the list for replacing the vandal-tainted Confederate flag at the city council building with a new one in 1986.
Each school is expected to decide on a potential name change by December 18th.
Jonathan Alloy, whose children attend one of the schools on the list, believes the committee has chosen an unfortunate time to innovate — and would prefer school leaders to pay more attention to the distance learning process.
“The principals are allocating resources for this,” he says, “but changing the name of a school they can't attend won't help children from disadvantaged backgrounds.”
Study Council President Marc Sanchez, in turn, defended the initiative.
“I don't think there will ever come a time when people will be ready for this. — he said — «Some will still be upset — no matter when we do it.»
