A Texas high school has changed its name to remove any reference to the Confederate Gen. Robert E. Lee.
The San Antonio school changed the name from Lee High School to LEE High School. That’s it. Same name, basically, just all in capital letters.
In an effort to follow the trend that other schools and towns are making to remove references to Robert E. Lee in their landmarks and street names, the school looked to make an adjustment.
Why the subtle change? Well, they explain that the full name was the Robert E. Lee High School, more commonly referred to as Lee, but they changed it to LEE, meaning “Legacy of Educational Excellence.”
The change came after they received more than 2,000 suggestions following the events in Charlottesville, Virginia and the subsequent debate over Confederate monuments.
Over 2,000 suggestions and that’s the best they could do? Not much of a change, really, and not many are pleased with the slight revision.
Of course, those in favor of keeping the school’s reference to General Lee were upset that the name changed at all, while those wanting to remove all association found the new name to not be a distinct enough departure.
School board president Shannon Grona noted that it was a perfect compromise: “We can honor the legacy of the past. It is my hope that changing the name to Legacy of Educational Excellence will minimize the financial burden and help the community heal.”
Those commenting on coverage of this story at The Blaze had plenty to say, including one person who noted: “They should have changed it to ‘The high school formerly known as Robert E Lee High School.’ This way, it’s not named Robert E Lee High school anymore, and it keeps the old name, both at the same time.”
Another commenter explained: “If we erase our history we will forget how far we’ve come as Americans and will be doomed to repeat the crap, which seems to be happening today. Get over yourself, it’s history, it’s a part of all our culture as America.”
That was met with this response: “Right, because changing the name of a high school named years and years after Lee lived will remove Lee from all the history books…get a grip and learn some history.”
Another commenter shared this belief: “What a waste of time and money. Everything these days is drama, drama, drama. School should have left the name as it was. They allowed the minority of loud mouth instigators to push their hand.”
This commenter was not a fan of the name change, noting: “After listening to videos and reading stories on here and other sites, I am so disgusted that nobody ever mentions how much all of these idiotic changes are going to cost the taxpayers. Is this simply another excuse to toss even more money at many failing public schools?”
Another person offered this suggestion: “Gosh, to make them feel better then maybe they should change it from the ‘offensive’ name or Robert E. Lee to something more general, like General Lee. That’s non-specific!”
