You would think with a pandemic forcing closures and every other manner of challenges being realized by students, parents, and teachers that school administrators would have no shortage of work in front of them. Not so in California, it appears.
In the San Fransico School district, they have decided that it is of the highest priority to use their time going through the list of all of their schools and removing any of the names they deem to be offensive. Alex Griswold has a thread listing some of the targeted institutions.
The Google Doc where the San Francisco school board did it's research for deciding which historical figures to cancel is public, and it's hilariously bad https://t.co/Pc1R7Vv6Rg
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
Alex tabs not only the decisions, but in giving explanations the School Board actually disqualifies many of its own reasons for canceling these schools. Case in point – Identifying the wrong person.
The best part is the "Notes" tab, where someone lays out why the stated reasons are complete BS.
Case in point: "Lowell High School must be renamed because the namesake was a racist."
Notes: "Yeeeah, no, it wasn't named after that guy at all."
(they voted to rename anyway) pic.twitter.com/0V0RtwkX9l
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
Then there was the misidentified hate-crime.
Another example: "Paul Revere led the Penobscot Expedition, which led to the colonization of the Penobscot."
Notes: "What? No. The Penobscot expedition was fought against the British, in Penobscot Bay. The natives weren't involved."
(voted to rename anyway) pic.twitter.com/uGiKu0moBd
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
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This seems unfair, expecting a school board to get the history correct. Anyway, you could say the British are a race…so this could still have been racist, right?
Next is California hero Diane Feinstein. Her school is wrongfully tabbed over a racial incident — but as they do manage to get the names correct there is a small problem with the dates.
"Dianne Feinstein was responsible for evicting an entire Filipino neighborhood!"
Notes: "That happened in 1977. She wasn't mayor until a year later."
(voted to rename anyway) pic.twitter.com/z0u3KklmNY
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
Names, races, and dates have all been butchered, so what next can they get wrong? How about the math? After all, if you are going to target Abraham Lincoln who needs accuracy, after all?
"Abraham Lincoln executed 38 Dakota Indians!"
Notes: "The Minnesota governor was going to execute *300*. Lincoln intervened when he had no obligation to, and saved the vast majority of them."
(voted to rename anyway) pic.twitter.com/KVLCU7TtvD
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
And as we already learned last year, George Washington is completely unacceptable.
"George Washington: slaveowner, colonizer."
Notes: "HE REVOLTED AGAINST A COLONIZER TO FREE COLONIAL SUBJECTS. HE IS LITERALLY GEORGE WASHINGTON. ARE YOU SERIOUS RIGHT NOW."
(voted to rename anyway) pic.twitter.com/24EsnEs4x3
— Alex Griswold (@HashtagGriswold) January 29, 2021
There are even more selections, with stunted and ignorant rationales given.
PRESIDIO MIDDLE SCHOOL – ”Presidio is a Spanish word for ‘A fortified military settlement”. It also represents the enslavement of native California people and the theft of their lands.
WILLIE L. BROWN MIDDLE SCHOOL – Not due to fostering the arrival of Kamala Harris, the former mayor is blamed for gentrification in the city…we suppose.
THOMAS EDISON CHARTER ACADEMY – ”He had a fondness for electrocuting animals.” The man accomplished little else in his lifetime, it is assumed.
ALAMO ELEMENTARY – ”Colonization, but also means poplar tree in Spanish.” We cannot abide having schools using botanical terms in another language.
TENDERLOIN COMMUNITY SCHOOL – Get ready for this one: Back in the day the police in the city were paid more, and they would beat trans sex workers and steal from them. The police would use the money to buy the more expensive cuts of steak. Yes…seriously.
BUENA VISTA/HORACE MANN ALTERNATIVE SCHOOL – ”More research is needed on Horace Mann”. It is unclear what is more troubling; that a school board is unfamiliar with a noted historical educator who promoted the public school system, or that the school board is unclear in general why schools are given the names in the first place.
Frankly, there is little problem in much of this. If they find problems with all of these figures they could just stick with the practice of not teaching subjects — like they do right now.
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