An online petition has gotten more than 7,600 signatures protesting the San Francisco school district’s move to rename 44 local schools, including those honoring George Washington, Abraham Lincoln and Thomas Jefferson.
The district’s controversial decision — first reported by the San Francisco Chronicle in October — aims to dump the names of presidents and war heroes with ties to racism or oppression. A vote is set for April 19.
Lope Yap Jr., vice president of San Francisco’s George Washington High School Alumni Association, told the New York Post he's hoping ''public pressure could influence their process.''
''If they get enough backlash they might reconsider,'' he said.
Along with the petition, hundreds of school alumni have written letters to the school board bashing the choice to yank down the names of figures ranging from Revolutionary War hero Paul Revere to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif.
''We feel that whether socialist, conservative or independent, if you honor truth in history, politics needs to be put to the side,'' Yap told the New York Post. ''We don’t want to erase things.''
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