Business & Finance

San Diego board chooses new name for Robert E. Lee Elementary

School will now be known as Pacific View Leadership Elementary.
May 26, 2016
2 min read

Another school system has decided to rename a campus that had been named for Confederate Army General Robert E. Lee.

KSWB-TV reports that the San Diego School Board has voted unanimously to change the name of Robert E. Lee Elementary to Pacific View Leadership Elementary.

Proponents of the change argued that Lee's name and its links to the Confederacy were seen by many as pro-slavery, racist symbols. The school was named for the general when it opened in 1959.

Students at the school came up with the Pacific View name, board members say. More than three-quarters of the students at the school are Hispanic; 6.6 percent are Filipino; 5.5 percent are African American, and 2.5 percent are Caucasian.

The San Diego district held community forums last year to discuss whether the school should be renamed.

 "We see this as an important opportunity to have a larger community dialogue with students, staff and families about the school name and look at the history and research surrounding Lee in order to make a collectively informed decision about changing the name or retaining it," the district said.

Also this week, the school board in Austin, Texas, changed the name of its Robert E. Lee Elementary to Russell Lee Elementary, in honor of a former University of Texas professor.

Video from KSWB-TV:

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Mike Kennedy

Senior Editor

Mike Kennedy, senior editor, has written for AS&U on a wide range of educational issues since 1999.

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