In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed

[David Lockmiller]

In San Francisco, the “beachhead” battle to defend the character and reputation of President Abraham Lincoln has now been joined by Laurence H. Tribe, Esq. (Carl M. Loeb University Professor and Professor of Constitutional Law Emeritus Harvard Law School.) On March 18, 2021, two attorneys, Paul Scott and Laurence Tribe, filed a Verified Petition for Writ of Mandate in San Francisco Superior Court on the basis of violations of the Ralph M. Brown Act, the U. S. Constitution (First and Fourteenth Amendments) and California Constitution (Article I).

Some numbered paragraphs of the twenty page filing:

1. On January 26, 2021, the San Francisco Board of Education (hereinafter “the Board”) passed Resolution 211-12A1 (“the Renaming Resolution”), declaring that 44 public schools in San Francisco would be renamed, based on allegations of racism, sexism or other forms of oppression by the historical figures after whom the schools had been named.

2. As has now been publicly acknowledged, however, the process followed by the Board in arriving at this resolution was badly flawed. Just a few of the numerous procedural and substantive errors include the following.

3. The Board adopted a resolution authorizing an advisory committee dubbed “The School Names Committee” (hereinafter “the Committee” or “the advisory committee”) to investigate the possibility of renaming San Francisco public schools. The resolution represented that this “blue ribbon” panel would be independent, have expertise suitable to the task and would not act without authority. Id. In reality, the Committee was headed by Jeremiah Jeffries, who served as Board Commissioner Mark Sanchez’s campaign manager, and who also enlisted Board President Lopez to run for her position. The Committee did not include any individuals, like historians, with the necessary expertise and it acted beyond its authority by directing schools to start looking at new names before any decision had been made by the Board to rename them.

8. On January 26, 2021, the Board passed the Renaming Resolution that is the subject of this petition. The notice provided by the Board for its January 26, 2021 vote, however, was inadequate and misleading. The agenda item associated with the renaming issue gave no indication that the Board was going to make a final decision to rename 44 San Francisco public schools in a single vote at the meeting. Indeed, the draft resolution attached to the agenda item spoke only of sanctioning a list for “potential renaming.” It was only toward the end of the meeting, and in a press release following the meeting, that the public was informed that the true import of the resolution was to make a final determination that 44 schools would be renamed with only alternative new names to be considered later.

9. The unsurprising results of this process were numerous substantive errors, public outcry, and notice by counsel for Petitioners that the Board had violated the Ralph M. Brown Act, Gov’t Code §§ 54950, et seq. (hereinafter “the Brown Act”), and Due Process.

12. In a February 25, 2021 letter, counsel for Petitioners explained these facts to the Board, explained the statutory time constraints on Petitioners to file suit for violations of the Brown Act, and exhorted the Board to comply with the law and simply repeal its unlawful Renaming Resolution, so as to avoid the time and expense of litigation for all concerned. But the Board declined to respond.

The San Francisco Court judge signed the Order on March 18 “to either vacate the Board’s Resolution 211-12A1 (“the Renaming Resolution”) adopted on January 26, 2021 and dissolve the School Renaming Committee, immediately after receipt of alternative writ of mandate or, in the alternative, to show cause before this court on May 6, 2021 why it has not done so.”

P.S. I just learned from a comment made to a story published Friday in the San Francisco Chronicle on this subject that "Professor Tribe graduated from Abraham Lincoln High School at the age of 16 in 1958."

A strange meeting of history, is it not? If he gone to a different high school in San Francisco in 1958, Professor Tribe might not have taken any interest in the case.