{"id":27615,"date":"2018-01-24T21:25:13","date_gmt":"2018-01-24T21:25:13","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=27615"},"modified":"2018-01-24T21:25:13","modified_gmt":"2018-01-24T21:25:13","slug":"can-school-board-revisit-tough-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/?p=27615","title":{"rendered":"Can this school board revisit a tough issue?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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I haven’t seen every scrap of social media chatter bouncing around Amarillo, Texas during the past couple of days.<\/p>\n

What I have seen regarding an Amarillo Independent School District board non-decision has been — shall we say — less than flattering toward most of the board members.<\/p>\n

The AISD board voted 4-3 the other night to “change” the name of Robert E.\u00a0 Lee Elementary School to Lee Elementary School.<\/em><\/p>\n

I believe Amarillo has just witnessed the unveiling of a profile in timidity, if not outright cowardice.<\/p>\n

The school in question sits smack in the middle of a community that serves a significant population of African-Americans. Children attend a school that is named after a man — Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee — who led a military effort to defeat the United States in a war that began over whether states could allow the ownership of slaves.<\/p>\n

Gen. Lee’s name has been in the news of late. Communities have sought to remove statues commemorating this man who I and others consider to be a traitor<\/em> to the United States of America. They rioted in Virginia because white supremacists, KKK’men and neo-Nazis protested attempts to remove a Robert E. Lee statue from a public park; the riot killed a young woman and injured scores of others. Moreover, it prompted an intense national discussion about how we commemorate the Confederate States of America.<\/p>\n

AISD board members agreed to discuss and consider changing the name of the school. Then they choked. They fumbled. They missed their chance to send a powerful statement that this community would take a proactive step that removes the name of a national enemy from one of its public buildings.<\/p>\n

“Lee Elementary” does not do a single thing to promote that notion.<\/p>\n

So … here’s a thought. The AISD board represents<\/em> a constituency that appears to oppose the non-decision the board made on the naming of a public<\/em> school.<\/p>\n

Perhaps the AISD board members can reflect just a bit on the nutty notion they thought would eliminate a community controversy.<\/p>\n

This so-called “name change” didn’t do anything of the kind.<\/p>\n

There’s not a single thing wrong with acknowledging<\/em> a mistake, AISD trustees. Nor is there anything wrong with taking measures to repairing it.<\/p>\n\n

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I haven’t seen every scrap of social media chatter bouncing around Amarillo, Texas during the past couple of days. What I have seen regarding an Amarillo Independent School District board non-decision has been — shall we say — less than flattering toward most of the board members. The AISD board voted 4-3 the other night … Continue reading Can this school board revisit a tough issue?<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[6251,9],"tags":[214,7240,1014,3808,7248,4286],"class_list":["post-27615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-news","category-local-news","tag-aisd","tag-charlottesville-riot","tag-civil-war","tag-racism","tag-robert-e-lee","tag-slavery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27615"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27617,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27615\/revisions\/27617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/highplainsblogger.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}