The San Francisco School Board voted to change the names of 44 schools, including the one named after Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).
One moment during Feinstein’s term as San Francisco mayor caused the voters to choose to remove her name:
Here’s why. In 1984 a protester by the name of Richard Bradley climbed a flag pole to take down the Confederate Flag. It was one of 18 flags displayed outside San Francisco’s Civic Center since 1964 and used to symbolize the stages of American History.After Bradley took the flag down, then Mayor Feinstein ordered the flag to be put up again.It was Doris Ward, the first African American Board President who convinced Feinstein to permanently remove the flag. Feinstein did.
The board chose to go against Washington and Jefferson because they owned slaves.
The school named after Lincoln will undergo a change because black and Native American lives didn’t matter to him. There’s a few more:
Some other namesakes’ legacies, such as Junipero Serra, Jose Ortega and Vasco Nunez de Balboa, were based on colonization and abuses of indigenous people. Another storied figure, John Muir, was also selected for renaming due to comments that invoked racist stereotypes made toward Black people. (The Sierra Club’s executive director recently condemned its founder for these remarks.)
Because we all know changing a school’s name is essential to a student’s achievement.
Wrong.
Former educator Erika Sanzi pointed San Francisco tops the nation in achievement gaps.
Another chart shows 70% of the students are proficient in math compared to 12% of blacks and 21% of Latinos.
Even San Francisco Mayor London Breed blasted the school board, especially since kids have not returned to the classroom:
Even Mayor London Breed entered the fray, criticizing the renaming of schools and calling it “offensive” last year amid the pandemic and the continuation of school closures.Breed said in a statement Wednesday: “This is an important conversation to have, and one that we should involve our communities, our families, and our students. What I cannot understand is why the School Board is advancing a plan to have all these schools renamed by April, when there isn’t a plan to have our kids back in the classroom by then.”
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