San Francisco school board backs down, for now, on renaming plans

To avoid a lawsuit, the San Francisco school board reversed Tuesday its decision to rename dozens of schools some members said were linked to racism, slavery, genocide and other injustices.

The vote resolves a dispute over the board's much-maligned intention to strip public schools of the names of historical figures and events instead of crafting a school reopening plan.

"The end result of this incredible obstinacy and refusal to take responsibility has been an enormous waste of time and resources by all concerned, when the board should have been focused on getting kids back to school, rather than creating a legal mess that private citizens have had to clean up by resort to the courts," plaintiffs' attorney Paul D. Scott said in a statement.

The school board wrote in the agenda for the vote that it will resume the renaming initiative when "all students have returned to in-person learning for five full days each week."

"The board is deeply grateful for the work of the panel [that recommended the changes] but wishes to avoid the distraction and wasteful expenditure of public funds in frivolous litigation," it stated.

In January, the board voted 6-1 to move forward with the initiative for 44 schools, including George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Balboa high schools, along with Alamo, Jefferson and Junipero Serra elementary schools. Dianne Feinstein elementary was also on the list because the senator replaced a vandalized confederate flag outside City Hall during her 1978-1988 mayoral term.

Some groups backed the effort, noting Thomas Jefferson's slave ownership and saying that President Herbert Hoover's legacy laid the foundation for redlining. Others panned the board for inaccurately characterizing the history of figures the schools are named after and, in one case, entirely misinterpreting the name altogether.

The advisory committee, for example, thought Alamo Elementary School was named after the battle in the Texas revolution against Spain when it was actually named for the Spanish word for "poplar tree." In another, it determined Paul Revere's involvement in the Penobscot Expedition made him a colonizer despite the battle being against the British and not Indigenous people.

Scott, a father of children attending public schools in the district, represented alumni associations from Abraham Lincoln and George Washington high schools, the San Francisco Taxpayers Association and former congressman John Burton, when he sued the school board in March. The lawsuit alleged that the district violated procedural requirements to rename schools, emphasizing shoddy research, the exclusion of opposing opinions and a violation of the Brown Act, California's open meeting law.

Superior Court Judge Ethan Schulman ordered that district to rescind the vote and eliminate the renaming committee or show why it shouldn't have to do so. Abraham Lincoln High School of San Francisco Alumni Association v. San Francisco Board of Education, cpf-21-517410 (S.F. Super. Ct., filed March 18, 2021).

Those governing the San Francisco education system are currently embroiled in litigation on multiple fronts. San Francisco City Attorney Dennis Herrera sued the district in February to force it to bring students in all grades back to school by the end of April.

Schulman is expected to rule on an emergency injunction this week after indicating at a hearing that the matter might be better suited to federal court considering its scope and complexity.

The school board was also accused in a lawsuit filed in federal court of violating the free speech rights of board member Allison Collins by removing her from her position as vice president over allegedly racist tweets against Asian Americans she posted in 2016.