The names of 44 schools in the San Francisco Unified School District could be changed because of alleged connections to "colonization" and racism, including namesakes of Presidents Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson and Franklin Roosevelt, and Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
Forbes magazine reported the district's School Names Advisory Committee will announce a decision by Dec. 18.
The citeria includes "anyone directly involved in the colonization of people," "slave owners or participants in enslavement," "perpetuators of genocide," "those who exploit workers/people," “those who directly oppressed or abused women, children, queer or transgender people," "those connected to any human rights or environmental abuses," "those who are known racists and/or white supremacists and/or espoused racist beliefs."
Dianne Feinstein Elementary School could be renamed because when Feinstein was the mayor of San Francisco, she allegedly replaced a Confederate flag that had been vandalized.
However, it's unclear whether or not she made the decision, and one day later she ordered that the flag be replaced with a Union banner.
The San Francisco Chronicle reported Abraham Lincoln High School could be renamed because Lincoln in 1862 ordered the execution of 38 Native Americans who took part in an uprising.
San Francisco Mayor London Breed, the first black woman to lead the city, said in a statement it's "offensive" that the district is devoting resources to name changes rather than the immediate problem of families coping with distance learning.
"Look, I believe in equality. It's the forefront of my administration and we've made historic investments to address the systemic racism confronting our city," she said. "But the fact that our kids aren't in school is what’s driving inequality in our City. Not the name of the school."
The Chronicle reported five high school alumni associations criticized the committee for not consulting professional historians.
"We need an inclusive process that will allow all communities to be heard, use professional historians applying verifiable data, issue a written report why a school name might be changed, so the community can make a considered decision," they said.
Forbes noted the school board voted to paint over a mural in a public high school depicting the life of George Washington that included images of slavery and mistreatment of Native Americans.
The artwork "traumatizes students and community members," according to a working group of the San Francisco Unified School District.
The district convened a "Reflection and Action Working Group" comprised of members of the local Native American community, students, school representatives, district representatives, local artists and historians," Laura Dudnick, spokeswoman for the district, wrote in an email to the College Fix.
A majority of the group voted to recommended that the "Life of Washington" mural "be archived and removed because the mural does not represent SFUSD values," Dudnick said.
The Wall Street Journal reported the irony that the murals were painted in 1936 by a Russian-American artist, Victor Arnautoff, who "included those images not to glorify Washington, but rather to provoke a nuanced evaluation of his legacy."
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