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

[David Lockmiller]

RE: In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed – Post #32, 11-16-20

Guiding Principles for SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee
Approved by Committee on July 17, 2020

Guiding Principles:
For identifying school names to be changed, the committee will use any of the following criteria:
We will seek to change the names of schools that are named for:
Second item listed: Slave owners or participants in enslavement.

It is indisputable that General and President George Washington was a slave owner.

Lincoln Discussion Symposium Post by David Lockmiller
RE: In San Francisco, Virus is Contained but Schools Are Still Closed – Post #38. 11-18-20
Before the start of each Zoom meeting of the Renaming of Schools Committee, there is a short period of time allocated to accept public comments. For the August 12, 2020 meeting, an older lady was accepted to speak. When she did speak, she spoke critically of the Renaming of Schools Committee’s evidence evaluation and consideration process. She began her public comments at “12:30”.

The lady’s prepared comments from which she obviously read, particularly relating to the efficacy of the School Board panel’s renaming process, began at “13:00”and were as follows:

“My comments today are to make noise(?) because of what John Lewis would call “Good Trouble.” Because I have seen something in the working papers, which only include negative comments. To me, this is akin to a trial in which there is no defense and only the prosecutors are allowed to present their case. And their argument leapfrogs over to the jurors and sentencing. For example, I think that it’s appalling, and shall I say, maybe even outrageous, that the working papers of this committee make no mention of George Washington’s leading the Continental Army at Delaware and Valley Forge. And he was the first one to sign our Constitution and was our first President. Washington . . .” [At “13:54”, the panel’s facilitator cut her off, by saying “Emily (?), you’re out of time.” I could see on my computer screen that the facilitator had been closely monitoring her permitted amount of time to make comments.] Emily continued briefly: “Without these men, we would become an aristocracy with a King.” [“14:04”]

No member of the panel made any comment regarding the lady’s important observations and opinion regarding the renaming process justification. The San Francisco Board of Education -Renaming of Schools Committee simply moved forward with its important work that day for the next one hour and 16 minutes.


Pope Francis in a November 26, 2020 New York Times opinion piece wrote: “It is all too easy for some to take an idea — in this case, for example, personal freedom — and turn it into an ideology, creating a prism through which they judge everything.”

Regarding General and President George Washington and many other historical names, the Guiding Principles listed for SFUSD School Names Advisory Committee, approved by Committee on July 17, 2020, is the “prism through which they have judged everything.”

This short list of Guiding Principles specifically includes, “slave owners or participants in enslavement.” It is indisputable that General and President George Washington was a slave owner. Therefore, President George Washington is guilty as charged.

Never mind that as Emily stated in the short time permitted by the Panel’s facilitator: “I think that it’s appalling, and shall I say, maybe even outrageous, that the working papers of this committee make no mention of George Washington’s leading the Continental Army at Delaware and Valley Forge. And he was the first one to sign our Constitution and was our first President.”

Hence, judged through these simple Guiding Principles “prism” alone, the “blue ribbon” Renaming of Schools Panel will recommend to the elected members of the School Board in a January 6, 2021 scheduled Panel meeting that the names of Washington High School, Abraham Lincoln High School, and 42 other schools within the San Francisco Unified School District be renamed for just and sufficient cause.

Thus, in reality, the judge and jury on this $10 million project for renaming 44 San Francisco Schools for just cause(s) is the “blue ribbon” panel appointed by the elected School Board members. These same panel members were also the ones who decided among themselves the severely constrained “Guiding Principles” and the “prism through which they judged everything.”

Thereby, the purpose and function of the Brown Act will have been effectively thwarted. For it is only the elected members of the School Board who are subject to the provisions of the Brown Act. A meeting is defined under the Brown Act, as any occasion in which a majority of the voting members of the board come together at the same time and location to “hear, discuss, deliberate or take action on any matter that is within the subject matter jurisdiction of the legislative body.”

The elected members of the San Francisco School Board have the exclusive governmental power to commit $10 million of San Francisco taxpayer funds for this project of renaming schools in San Francisco. In my opinion, the San Francisco School Board will merely rubber-stamp the recommendations of the Renaming of Schools Panel who they appointed, with little or no public discussion regarding the renaming of individual schools, including that of Abraham Lincoln High School in San Francisco.

President Abraham Lincoln saved in his time as President of the United States the institution of democracy for this nation and the world. And, with his instigation and able assistance caused passage of the Thirteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution, which Lincoln himself referred to as the “king’s cure” to the end of slavery in the United States.

Amendment XIII, Section 1 reads simply: “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Section 2 reads: “Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.”

I am not tilting against imaginary windmill-foes. The elected members of the San Francisco School Board intend to disgrace the name of President Abraham Lincoln and many other historical figures in this unfair and unjust manner.