San Fran Board of Education suggests removing “Washington” and using “Kaepernick” for school names

Only in America, and more accurately, only in California, could the name “George Washington” trigger such ill feelings that the only solution is to remove it from public school buildings so as not to upset the children. But that’s exactly what San Francisco Board of Education President Matt Haney wants to do. 

Haney calls America’s first president “problematic” because he was a slave owner and for that reason alone, his name should be removed from any school named after the Founding Father. According to the San Francisco Examiner, Haney came up with the idea after hearing a sermon about the childish NFL quarterback who refuses to stand in honor of the country that has made him a millionaire:

The idea came to him after listening to a sermon Sunday at Third Baptist Church, a black church in the Western Addition, about 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick protesting the national anthem in recent weeks. The song’s slave-owning author, Francis Scott Key, has a school named after him in the Outer Sunset.

It was suggested on Facebook that the Key school be renamed after Kaepernick, but Haney said he doesn’t want to stop there: “We tearing them all down. No schools named after people who bought and owned human beings and committed genocide.”

For Washington High, Haney suggests Maya Angelou High School instead. The black poet was a former student at Washington.

There are other schools that Haney finds problematic, such as Robert Louis Stevenson Elementary School. To him, there’s no reason to name if after the author of Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. Nor is it okay to name a middle school in a “socio-economically disadvantaged” area after James Lick, a wealthy and white 19th century Californian.

“I don’t think the goal is to condemn people who died a long time ago,” said Haney. “The question is whether there might be a more appropriate, meaningful name.”

In Haney’s view, “more appropriate” means naming schools “after people of color, women and LGBT figures.” Because as everyone knows, if you fall into those social categories, it’s impossible to do anything immoral.

H/T The College Fix