Thread by @tomrousseyABC7

Today the superintendent of Falls Church schools said all students should feel valued & he supports a board vote Tuesday to change the names of George Mason High & Thomas Jefferson Elem.
The move is controversial, in an October survey it was opposed by a more than 2 to 1 margin.

The school board voted unanimously to change the names because the two men were slaveholders. Opponents accuse the board of ignoring the majority of the community’s wishes.

Although we’ve seen names of Confederates dropped from local schools & recently Alexandria voted to drop the name of segregationist TC Williams from its high school, this appears to be the first local district to remove names of founding fathers- both of which are honored in DC.

Early last year when Arlington‘s school board voted to drop “Lee“ and change Washington-Lee to Washington-Liberty High School, they made a point of keeping the name Washington.
The names referred to George Washington and Robert E. Lee.
Washington was also a slaveholder.

We checked today – Arlington currently has no plans to change the name of Thomas Jefferson Middle there, and Fairfax County has no plans to change Thomas Jefferson High. This summer George Mason University’s new president said he opposed changing that school’s name.

Here’s what George Mason University’s president wrote this past summer. The school tells me today nothing has changed since then. nbcnews.com/think/opinion/…

Changing the names in Falls Church will cost and estimated $96,670 for new uniforms and equipment for George Mason High sports teams, plus $13,500 mostly for new signs for Thomas Jefferson Elementary.

The district says it won’t have to pay extra for signs at George Mason, because a new replacement high school is about to open & has mostly been built just with the nickname Mustangs in various places, which will remain. It could open next month depending on the pandemic.