The city has been tearing itself apart for a year now as DCPS fails the city once again by not quickly changing the names of schools named after confederate generals. Instead of doing both the easy and right thing, DCPS has engaged in a year-long odyssey. Another school district faced with the exact same issue did things much quicker and better.
From the USA Today,
The eleventh-largest school district in the U.S. has renamed a high school formerly known as Robert E. Lee High School after civil rights icon John Lewis.
The school board in Fairfax County, Virginia, voted Thursday to rename the school after the congressman, who died this month. The new name, John R. Lewis High School, takes effect this school year.
Representative Tamara Derenak Kaufax, a Fairfax County school board member, proposed a resolution to remove the Confederate general's name from the school in Springfield, Virginia, outside Washington, D.C., in February.
Several board members cheered when the unanimous vote was announced.
Here is a little more from the Patch,
In February, the school board voted to start the renaming process and seek public feedback. However, that process was delayed after K-12 schools were ordered to close for the rest of the academic year due to the pandemic.
https://patch.com/virginia/kingstowne/robert-e-lee-high-school-renaming-process-resume
The process started in February. The pandemic delayed vote was taken in June. The name was changed in July. 4 months it took and only because of the pandemic compared to Jacksonville's 11 and counting.
This should have been an easy decision, the board isn't going to have many easier, but instead of doing the right thing and saving the city a lot of pain and division, they dragged it out because that's what poor leaders do, and we have a bunch.
If DCPS can't get the easy stuff right, it is no surprise that we are failing at the hard stuff.
Should've ripped off the band aid last June but they're always behind the curve. Instead they've tried to institutionalize racism with this ballot initiative. Better off waiting a month now & taking em down after school is out.
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