SAN FRANCISCO – Maybe it was suddenly that 44 names were removed at once. Or perhaps it was the feeling of many that the Board of Education had gone one step too far, and during a weakening pandemic to begin with. Whatever the reasons, the decision to wipe out one-third of the city’s school names, including those honoring Washington, Jefferson and Lincoln, has hit a nerve in San Francisco.
Less than twelve hours after the city’s education council voted to change the names, Mayor London Breed voiced the decision and questioned the council’s priorities. “Let’s bring the same urgency and focus on getting our children back in the classroom, and then we can have the longer conversation about the future of school names,” she said. Broadly speaking.
Even more reasonable was the editorial board of the San Francisco Chronicle, which wrote that members of the Board of Education “largely left the education enterprise and switched themselves as amateur historians.”
The 6-1 decision by the board came late Tuesday when they voted through Zoom to remove the names of those “who were engaging in the subjugation and enslavement of men; or who oppressed women, hindering society’s progress or whose actions led to genocide, or which otherwise significantly reduced the opportunities of those among us to the right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. “
On the list were schools named after George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Francis Scott Key because they possessed slaves; Abraham Lincoln, for the execution of 38 Dakota tribesmen in 1862; and Dianne Feinstein, senior senator in California, for replacing a stolen Confederate flag outside City Hall in 1984 when she was mayor of San Francisco.
Other names planned for deletion: President Herbert Hoover; John Muir, the physicist and author; James Russell Lowell, an abolitionist poet and editor; Paul Revere, the figure of the revolutionary war; and Robert Louis Stevenson, the author. The rationale for each decision is listed in a spreadsheet.
The Board of Education has not decided on new names and says it welcomes proposals.
“Any final decision to change school names rests with the elected members of the Board of Education,” the board said in a statement.
Many unbelieving parents mocked the decision on social media, even though the news was picked up by the country’s right-wing news websites.
Some parents said they were particularly angry that the name changes were announced, just when they received an email from the district that it was unlikely that students would learn to learn in person again this school year.
Dr. Adam Davis, a San Francisco pediatrician with a boy in kindergarten and a daughter in second grade, said he receives text messages from friends in Boston mocking the changes.
“I do not know anyone personally who does not find this embarrassing,” said Dr. Davis said. The renaming, he said, “is a caricature of what people think liberals in San Francisco do.”
On Facebook and Twitter, parents said they were concerned about the renaming costs – estimates for changing signs, paperwork and websites for the 44 schools amounted to millions – and how it would exacerbate the district’s already strained finances. The name changes were done without community input and took precedence over reopening schools, parents said.
In an interview, Dr Davis made it clear that the anger over the issue was not just from Conservatives. Like many political disputes in San Francisco, it was an intra-liberal struggle.
“I’m a strong Elizabeth Warren liberal – Biden was too moderate for me,” Dr Davis said. “Liberals by definition believe that the government can do good things. When we do ridiculous things, we make a mockery of the movement. ‘
Noah Griffin, who attended George Washington High School six decades ago and was involved in other disputes over historical legacy, said the name changes left him divided.
He does not object to his alma mater changing the name, because as a black man he sees Washington’s slave ownership as unforgivable.
“What Washington did was not for the benefit of people who look like me,” he said. Griffin said. “The stain of slave ownership is something I can not ignore.”
Mr. Griffin also said he understands that he is removing Lincoln’s name, not because of his personal beliefs, but also from the Indians.
“Lincoln is a hero to me, but he is not to the Native American community,” he said. Griffin said. “Only he who wears the shoe knows how well it fits.”
But Mr. Griffin said he was opposed to renaming Dianne Feinstein Elementary School.
“I worked for Dianne Feinstein as an administrative assistant,” he said. “We have been friends for almost 50 years now. I think she was an exemplary senator.
“There may be some excesses in the process.”
Nguyen Louie, the mother of a student at Junipero Serra Elementary School, named after an 18th-century Catholic priest who established missions in California, said she supports the renaming of the school.
“I feel a little embarrassed to send my son to school,” she said. Serra was canonized in 2015 by Pope Francis, but is criticized by Indian American groups and many others for the oppression of indigenous cultures during the cruel period of colonization.
But Louie said she’s not sure of all the other names on the list – Lincoln, ‘she said,’ is a difficult name ‘- and she wishes the process had more time.
“It would be great if they could say, ‘These schools are on the bag, but let’s implement them later,'” she said.
Brandee Marckmann, the parent of a third-grader at Sutro Elementary School, who was named after a San Francisco mayor in the late 19th century and was removed at the time for racist policies, is unequivocal in her support for name changes.
“I think it’s a real sign that we live in such a racist country that there are so many of our schools named after people who have committed atrocities against black and indigenous people.”
To like the names, like Lincoln, can be justified, she said, “only if you center whiteness.”
The renaming process, she said, was “a very good journey to get the name of a joyful and righteous name.”
‘In 30 or 40 years, people are going to say,’ Why did we have schools named after slave owners? ‘, She said.
The San Francisco renaming dispute is one of many in the Bay Area. Across the Golden Gate Bridge in Marin County, a group of parents and alumni accuse members of the faculty and administration of Sir Francis Drake High School of going crooked and removing the signs without the full consent of the community.
And across the Bay, the administration at the University of California, Berkeley, on Tuesday called the name Kroeber Hall. A committee that made the decision noted that although Alfred Kroeber was considered one of the most influential American anthropologists in the first half of the 20th century, his research methods were ‘immoral and unethical, even for the time being’.
Mr. “Kroeber mentioned, among other things, that he collected or approved the remains of Native American ancestors from burial sites and compiled a repository of this human remains for research study,” the committee said.
In what may be a sign of the times, it was the fourth naming of the university in the past year.
“Everything is for re-evaluation,” he said. Griffin, the former student of the school, formerly known as George Washington High School, said. “We live through revolutionary times.”