San Francisco’s school board has abandoned its plan to strip the names of Founding Fathers and other historical figures from 44 schools after the scheme was criticized for going too far and partially relying on flawed research posted on Wikipedia. According to SFGate, the city’s Board of Education voted unanimously late Tuesday to reverse its decision to strip the names—including Abraham Lincoln, George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, and Paul Revere—from a third of its public schools. The plan would have also seen the renaming of schools that honor Treasure Island author Robert Louis Stevenson and veteran Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), who reportedly made the list because, when she was mayor in 1984, a vandalized Confederate flag outside the City Hall was replaced. Mayor London Breed previously called the renaming plans “offensive and completely unacceptable,” and urged the board to focus on getting kids back into classrooms safely during the pandemic. The board plans to revisit the matter after all students have returned full-time.
