The decision San Francisco Schools Board to replace the names of Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and other prominent historical figures from dozens of public schools is opposed by local residents, officials, and advocacy groups.

The San Francisco Board of Education voted 6-1 on Tuesday for a resolution calling for the removal of the names of those “who have participated in the submission and enslavement of people; or oppressed women and stunted social progress; or whose actions resulted in genocide; or who have otherwise severely restricted the chances of those of us having the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness, ”said the text the dissolution.

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The renaming process was led by a committee formed in 2018 to investigate the names of schools amid a national reckoning of races that followed the deadly white supremist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia.

Schools to be renamed include Abraham Lincoln High School, George Washington High School, Dianne Feinstein Elementary, Roosevelt Middle School, Jefferson Elementary, and Alamo Elementary.

While Washington and Thomas Jefferson were chosen for being slave owners, Lincoln, best known for leading the US to defeat the Confederation and take action to abolish slavery, was named because of him reported Treatment of Native Americans.

Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) Name is on the list after the former San Francisco mayor allegedly ordered the replacement of a Confederate flag after it was demolished. the Sacramento Bee reports.

“This is an opportunity for our students to learn about the history of the names of our school, including potential new ones,” said Executive Chairwoman Gabriela López in a statement. “That resolution got into the school board after the attacks in Charlottesville, and we’re working with the rest of the country to dismantle symbols of racism and white supremacy. I’m curious to see what ideas the schools will come up with. ”

Schools have until April to propose new names that the board will vote on.

But the move has sparked criticism for a variety of reasons.

“This is a little joke. It’s almost like a parody of left activism, ”said Gerald Kanapathy, father of a kindergarten child at a school in San Francisco that is not on the list to be renamed The Associated Press.

Lope Yap Jr., vice president of the Alumni Association of George Washington High School in San Francisco, opposed the board’s decision.

“We believe that politics, whether socialist, conservative or independent, if you honor the truth in history, must be put aside,” said Yap The New York Post. “We don’t want to delete anything.”

“They forget that abolitionists praised Abraham Lincoln,” he told the point of sale.

After the vote, the Mayor of San Francisco, London Breed (D), slammed the decision and questioned the board’s priorities.

“I understand the meaning of the name of a school, and the name of a school should evoke a sense of pride in every student who walks through its doors, regardless of race, religion or sexual orientation,” Breed said in a statement.

“What I can’t understand is why the school board is putting forward a plan to have all of these schools renamed by April if there isn’t a plan to have our children back in the classroom by then,” she said, as the schools always do are still closed due to the corona pandemic.

Now more than 9,000 People signed an online petition urging school boards to “stop wasting time and money renaming schools and focus on educating our children”.

Interest group families also for San Francisco on the other hand and said it was a top-down process where the board made the decision without properly consulting experts and the wider community.

The San Francisco Board of Education did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Changing America.

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The post Backlash after San Francisco votes to rename Lincoln, Washington, Jefferson colleges appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – America’s founding fathers received a reprieve Tuesday in San Francisco when the city’s scandal-plagued school board formally overturned a plan to rename 44 schools in what critically considered a racial bill that had gone too far.

The city’s education authority that convened on Zoom unanimously voted to reverse its much-criticized decision to strip the names of one-third of San Francisco’s public schools. Among them were schools named after Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, writer Robert Louis Stevenson, and Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere. Also on the list was a school named after long-time Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Tuesday’s 6-0 decision means school authorities will withdraw their vote from January and will re-examine the matter after all students return to full-time study in person. There is no specific schedule.

The renaming debacle was one of several self-inflicted controversies the San Francisco School Board faced during the pandemic, along with numerous lawsuits and public ridicule.

Parents, students and elected officials blew up the board over some of its goals – and timing. The decision was made in late January when all public classrooms in San Francisco were closed due to coronavirus restrictions. You still are. Mayor London Breed called it “offensive and totally unacceptable”, among other things, for the board of directors to focus on changing the names of the schools rather than bringing the children back into the classrooms.

Some of the city’s youngest students are expected to return to face-to-face teaching this month after more than a year of distance learning due to the pandemic. There is no return schedule for middle and high school students.

The renaming efforts have also been criticized for historical inaccuracies and poor research, in which Wikipedia rather than historians were consulted.

A renaming advisory board falsely accused Paul Revere of wanting to colonize the Penobscot people. It also confused the Alamo Elementary School’s name with the Battle of Texas rather than the Spanish word for poplar.

“While we’re at it, what about the renaming to San Francisco?” Wrote columnist and town clerk Carl Nolte after the vote in the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that the town was named by missionaries after a Roman Catholic saint . “That clearly fits in with the guidelines for a new name.”

Feinstein Elementary made the list because, when she was mayor in 1984, it was decided to replace a destroyed Confederate flag that was part of a longstanding exhibition outside City Hall. If the flag was pulled down a second time, it was not replaced.

“It feels like the truth won this time,” Seeyew Mo, San Francisco family director, said of Tuesday’s vote. His group rejected the renaming process and drew attention to the flawed research.

“I’m glad they came to their senses – after legal proceedings and public pressure,” said Mo, who also protested the board’s “top-down process” in which a small group made the decision without the wider school community. “A lot of people agree with the idea of ​​revisiting names, but they just disagree with how it was done.”

The renaming process was led by a committee established in 2018 to investigate the names of county schools as part of a national settlement of racial injustices following deadly clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Schools and institutions across the country are currently considering changing names when the country re-evaluates its heroes.

The San Francisco committee found that those “involved in the subjugation and enslavement of people, oppressed women, stunted social progress, or whose actions led to genocide, or who otherwise severely restricted the opportunities of those of us right now.” Life, Freedom, and the Pursuit of Happiness “shouldn’t be named schools after them.

The result sparked an outcry in California that the web was too widespread, and social media and right-wing news sites that denied political correctness went wrong.

Board chairwoman Gabriela Lopez said in February that the process would be suspended until all the children were back in school. Lopez admitted in a statement that mistakes had been made in school selection and said when the board got back on the matter it would involve historians for a “more deliberate process”.

Since the renaming, the board has received several lawsuits. The city of San Francisco took the dramatic step of suing the school district and board of directors to pressure both of them to reopen classrooms faster. Another motion was filed in March by San Francisco attorney Paul Scott, whose children are attending public schools. The school board’s renaming decision violated the California Open Congregation Act and did not involve the community.

San Francisco Supreme Court Justice Ethan Schulman issued a ruling asking the board to do what the lawsuit requires – overturn the vote and dissolve the advisory committee on the renaming – or by April 16 to show why he shouldn’t be forced to do so.

The resolution passed on Tuesday ignored the criticism but denounced the lawsuit, saying it wanted to “avoid the distraction and wasteful spending of public funds in frivolous litigation.”

Tuesday’s meeting was also the first since the board decided last week to remove one of its members, Alison Collins, from her role as Vice President and other titles over 2016 tweets about Asian Americans.

In the tweets, Collins said that Asian Americans think “white supremacists” to get ahead. She defied calls to resign and last week sued the school district and five of her six colleagues on charges of violating their freedom of speech. She is demanding $ 87 million in damages.

The historian Harold Holzer called the school authority’s first attempt to rename an “overcorrection”. Holzer does not agree to remove Abraham Lincoln’s name from a high school, which, according to the San Francisco Committee, was due to the treatment of Indians during his tenure.

“I know people want to be inspired and not worship false idols,” said Holzer, a Lincoln Scholar and director of the Roosevelt House of Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. “But to be honest, for me there is still no better example of American history at the highest level of idealism than Abraham Lincoln.”

In the middle of the Civil War in 1863, Lincoln issued the Declaration of Emancipation, which freed slaves in the Confederation, including achievements out of poverty to become president, fight for equal opportunities and save the country from division.

“If Lincoln doesn’t win, we’ll have big problems,” said Holzer. “The successes so far outweigh the mistakes. I think he deserves recognition.”

This story has been corrected to show that the City of San Francisco sued its school board, but the lawsuit was not filed by the mayor.

The post San Francisco faculty board suspends plan to rename colleges | Bay Space appeared first on Los Gatos News And Events.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – America’s founding fathers received a reprieve Tuesday in San Francisco when the city’s scandal-ridden school board formally overturned a plan to rename 44 schools amid what critics considered to be an over-the-top racial bill.

The city’s education authority that convened on Zoom unanimously voted to reverse its much-criticized decision to strip the names of one-third of San Francisco’s public schools. Among them were schools named after Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, and Thomas Jefferson, writer Robert Louis Stevenson, and Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere. Also on the list was a school named after long-time Senator Dianne Feinstein.

Tuesday’s 6-0 decision means school authorities will withdraw their vote from January and will re-examine the matter after all students return to full-time study in person. There is no specific schedule.

The renaming debacle was one of several self-inflicted controversies the San Francisco School Board faced during the pandemic, along with numerous lawsuits and public ridicule.

Parents, students and elected officials blew up the board over some of its goals – and timing. The decision was made in late January when all public classrooms in San Francisco were closed due to coronavirus restrictions. You still are. Mayor London Breed called it, among other things, “offensive and totally unacceptable” that the board focused on changing the names of the schools rather than bringing the children back into the classrooms.

Some of the city’s youngest students are expected to return to face-to-face teaching this month after more than a year of distance learning due to the pandemic. There is no return schedule for middle and high school students.

The renaming efforts have also been criticized for historical inaccuracies and poor research, in which Wikipedia rather than historians were consulted.

A renaming advisory board falsely accused Paul Revere of wanting to colonize the Penobscot people. It also confused the Alamo Elementary School’s name with the Battle of Texas rather than the Spanish word for poplar.

“While we’re at it, what about the renaming to San Francisco?” Wrote columnist and town clerk Carl Nolte after the vote in the San Francisco Chronicle, noting that the town was named by missionaries after a Roman Catholic saint Guidelines for a new name. “

Feinstein Elementary made the list because, when she was mayor in 1984, it was decided to replace a destroyed Confederate flag that was part of a longstanding exhibition outside City Hall. If the flag was pulled down a second time, it was not replaced.

“It feels like the truth won this time,” San Francisco family leader Seeyew Mo said of Tuesday’s vote. His group rejected the renaming process and drew attention to the flawed research.

“I’m glad they came to their senses – after legal proceedings and public pressure,” said Mo, who also protested the board’s “top-down process” in which a small group made the decision without the wider school community. “A lot of people agree with the idea of ​​revisiting names, but they just disagree with how it was done.”

The renaming process was led by a committee established in 2018 to investigate the names of county schools as part of a national settlement of racial injustices following deadly clashes at a white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia. Schools and institutions across the country are currently considering changing names when the country re-evaluates its heroes.

The San Francisco committee noted that all persons “involved in the submission and enslavement of people; or oppressed women and stunted social progress; or whose actions resulted in genocide; or who has otherwise severely restricted the opportunities of those of us to have the right to life, freedom and the pursuit of happiness ”should not have named a school after them.

The result sparked an outcry in California that the web was too widespread, and social media and right-wing news sites that denied political correctness went wrong.

Board chairwoman Gabriela Lopez said in February that the process would be suspended until all the children were back in school. Lopez admitted in a statement that mistakes had been made in the selection of schools and said when the board came back on the matter it would involve historians for a “more deliberate process”.

Since the renaming, the board has received several lawsuits. The city of San Francisco took the dramatic step of suing the school district and board of directors to pressure both of them to reopen classrooms faster. Another motion was filed in March by San Francisco attorney Paul Scott, whose children are attending public schools. The school board’s renaming decision violated the California Open Congregation Act and did not involve the community.

San Francisco Supreme Court Justice Ethan Schulman issued a ruling urging the board to do what the lawsuit calls for – to overturn the vote and dissolve the advisory committee on the renaming – or by Jan. To show April why he shouldn’t be forced to do so.

The resolution passed on Tuesday ignored the criticism but denounced the lawsuit, saying it wanted to “avoid the distraction and wasteful spending of public funds in frivolous litigation.”

Tuesday’s meeting was also the first since the board decided last week to remove one of its members, Alison Collins, from her role as Vice President and other titles over 2016 tweets about Asian Americans.

In the tweets, Collins said that Asian Americans are using “white supremacist” thinking to get ahead. She defied calls to resign and last week sued the school district and five of her six colleagues on charges of violating their freedom of speech. She is demanding $ 87 million in damages.

The historian Harold Holzer called the school authority’s first attempt to rename an “overcorrection”. Holzer does not agree to remove Abraham Lincoln’s name from a high school, which, according to the San Francisco Committee, was due to the treatment of Indians during his tenure.

“I know people want to be inspired and not worship false idols,” said Holzer, a Lincoln Scholar and director of the Roosevelt House of Public Policy Institute at Hunter College. “But to be honest, for me there is still no better example of American history at the highest level of idealism than Abraham Lincoln.”

In the middle of the Civil War in 1863, Lincoln issued the Declaration of Emancipation, which freed slaves in the Confederation, including achievements out of poverty to become president, fight for equal opportunities and save the country from division.

“If Lincoln doesn’t win, we’ll have big problems,” said Holzer. “The previous successes outweigh the mistakes. I think he deserves recognition. “

This story has been corrected to show that the City of San Francisco sued its school board, but the lawsuit was not filed by the mayor.

Copyright 2021 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed in any way without permission.

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A group of alumni have come together to sue the San Francisco school system in hopes of permanently blocking the possibility of allegedly “racist” names – including Abraham Lincoln and Dianne Feinstein – being removed from schools.

A lawsuit filed Thursday in the San Francisco County Superior Court against the San Francisco School Board and Superintendent Vincent Matthews demands that officials formally overturn the controversial renaming decision, claiming the city was wrong by not giving parishioners or historians a chance to win to complain.

Last month, school officials temporarily withdrew the school renaming plan amid public outrage, saying they would not rename the 44 schools amid the coronavirus pandemic.

But lawyers representing a group of alumni associations told The Post Friday that the walk-back was not legally binding.

The new lawsuit is designed to ensure the city keeps its word and follows legal protocols before any future name changes are made, said one of the attorneys, Paul Scott.

The renaming decision violates the Brown Act, according to which the school board must ensure that members of the community have a say in the matter, said Scott.

“The whole process itself was flawed because they decided whether or not to rename 44 schools with 30 minutes of public comment in one vote,” said Scott.

“Nobody was able to show up in person, and again, as I said, insufficient notification. So there were a number of issues with the process, ”the lawyer continued.

A group of alumni is suing the San Francisco School Board and Superintendent Vincent Matthews for revoking renaming of public schools with “racist” affiliations.
AP Photo / Jeff Chiu

Another alleged violation was the school board’s misrepresentation that an independent blue ribbon panel would consider changing the names of schools – the school board’s offenders were named after “racist, sexist, or oppressive” historical figures, including George Washington and Paul Revere.

“It wasn’t really independent. There was a lack of specialist knowledge. There were no historians on the committee and they ended up dictating what would happen before the school board even voted, ”Scott said.

In the lawsuit, school officials must tell the court whether they will overturn the renaming order and dissolve the committee by April 15.

“Reflecting on our national history and uplifting disadvantaged groups are both positive and necessary steps to achieve a level of social justice while reducing prejudice. They help us heal and move forward, ”the lawsuit reads.

“However, as with all of the major tests our society faces, it is critical that our solutions are considered fair in order for them to last. And in this context, nothing is more important than complying with the law and due process. “

The San Francisco School Board voted 6-1 in January to remove the names of Founding Fathers, Abolitionists, and even California’s longtime Democratic Senator from school buildings.

The move was widely planned as an overreach of “culture abandonment”. One group report found that the decisions were “arbitrary, subjective, superficial” and based on research gathered through “occasional Google searches”.

School officials had claimed Paul Revere should be canceled because the members didn’t like a benign top ten Revolutionary War list they saw on the History Channel, according to the Mission Local report.

Abraham Lincoln High School – named after the president who many historians consider the greatest in the country – was to be renamed after only five seconds of renaming, as it was labeled “discriminatory and harmful to Native Americans.”

Feinstein’s name should be removed from an elementary school because it replaced a Confederate flag that was removed by a protester when she was mayor of San Francisco.

Even the famous bohemian neighborhood of San Fran The Mission was unsuitable for adornment at a school because “all CA missions are places of slavery and colonization,” reported the school’s renaming committee.

“If you want to have a discussion about school names, it should be done in a context where there really is full and fair opportunities for public input, and it should come from individual school communities and individual school stakeholders,” said Scott.

“The parents, the teachers, the staff, the alumni – everyone has a fair opportunity to make contributions and decide whether they want to do so for their respective schools.”

Liberal law icon Laurence Tribe of Harvard University is among the lawyers who filed the lawsuit on Thursday.

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