MPS Board to Form Committee to Rename Confederate-Named Schools
MPS board president Clare Weil says she hopes a statue of Robert. E Lee is never returned to the front of Lee High school. The statue has been in storage since it was removed by protesters on June 1st.
At Tuesday’s school board meeting Clare Weil read a statement she wrote saying that a majority of the community has asked for the statues removal and the name of the school to be changed for years, and the recent removal presents the opportunity to “right these wrongs”. She’s now asking the school board to create a committee to help guide the name-changing process.
You can read her full statement below:
Long-time board member Lesa Keith, has been criticized for some of her comments at the same board meeting after saying the debate over the name change is creating more division right now.
The charges against the four people that allegedly removed the statue from Robert E. Lee High School have been dropped due to a “legal error” and she says she’s worried that sends the wrong message.
Keith says she is in favor of coming up with a diverse committee that includes the alums of Montgomery’s three confederate-named schools. Tuesday, Keith suggested a compromise to changing the schools’ name using Lee high school as an example.
“Take down the statue”, she said defending her comments in a follow-up interview Wednesday “then we keep the name Lee but not [as in] Robert E. Lee. The “L” would mean leadership the “E” could mean excellence, and the other [E] could be education. So it would be basically an acronym for something good, something positive” she explained.
Keith’s suggested acronym is not a formal proposal, but there is a petition to change all confederate-named schools in Montgomery including Jefferson Davis and Sidney Lanier high schools.
In her statement Weil also said she’s asked the MPS legal team to review the $25,000 fine that MPS would have to pay if they were to break the 2017 law that now requires the school name changes to go before a state committee first.
