Change the names and don’t stop there
Weekly Word: Each week, the Lasso Editorial Board will comment on an issue that is relevant to the students of George Mason High School. We strive to present a student-oriented opinion about topics big and small that matter to the student body.
October 16, 2020
George Mason and Thomas Jefferson were slave owners. They bought, sold, and traded humans as property. Their participation in America’s racist history should not be honored in any way in our schools. George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary School should be renamed—and it should be one of many steps that the School Board takes to address racial injustice in our schools.
Yes, both Mason and Jefferson, at times in their lives, publicly questioned the morality of slavery. And both wrote foundational documents that helped create the United States. But FCCPS should not be in the business of making excuses for slaveholders, ever.
It would be easy to change the names of Mason and Jefferson and stop there. We could change the names, pat ourselves on the back, and then take comfort in the fact that we made a small change to address our country’s—and city’s—racist history. But if we stop after changing the names, we will prevent more meaningful change from happening.
The work of student social justice organizations such as the Social Justice Committee, the Black Student Union, and the MEH Students for Social Justice club make clear that the name change would be a tiny step towards a sweeping change in FCCPS’s culture towards racism.
Junior Pariss Quaintance, co-president of the Black Student Union, wrote about how name changes are meaningless unless our history curriculum changes. Senior Umika Pathak, a student leader on the Social Justice Committee, wrote about the importance of talking about race in class, as well as the need for implicit bias training, a reevaluation of our English class reading lists, and a commitment to cultural and racial diversity throughout FCCPS faculty. Students are speaking loudly and clearly about the concrete change they want to see in FCCPS beyond the name change.
We commend the work that the School Board is doing in the name change process. Everyone, especially the School Board, must keep working for more concrete changes towards anti-racism and racial equity in Falls Church.
This is one of a series of student-written opinions about the potential name change of George Mason High School and Thomas Jefferson Elementary. Read more here.
Melissa K Morse • Oct 23, 2020 at 4:36 PM
Thank you for bringing up the need for an update in the curriculum. To me, this is more important than the name change. I am not a young person but I can’t believe the people and events that I have learned about in the last few months due to social justice issues being discussed, and I’m sure I’m not alone. Do what you want with the name but let’s teach real history, all history. That should be the main focus of this discussion. Thank you for addressing this.
Alexander Brunnstrom • Oct 19, 2020 at 9:47 PM
I really think we should keep the name for the sake of history. Thomas Jefferson is one of the most important figures in American History and should be remembered for the sake of history. It is also important to point out that he wrote against slavery. We shouldn’t be going around tearing down every piece of evidence that we have. Personally, I don’t like the argument of not judging someone based off the time period due to the fact that some of the things plantation owners were doing at the time were clearly immoral. These actions that they did should be remembered and be used to prevent future things like this from happening. Plus, remembering plantation owners and what they did can help offer us insight into modern day slavery.
Barry Buschow • Oct 19, 2020 at 12:39 PM
As a 1967 alumnus, I don’t believe we should be judging our founding fathers because of the time and conditions they lived. Many founding fathers has large farms and cared for many family situations that helped them manage their affairs. How will people 100 years from know judge us or study the way we live? Why do we need to name anything after an individual that may be seen years later to not be consistent with the way they live years from now? Why not study history and allow each person to make up their own mind on issues that happened in the distance past? I know of no perfect individual that every lived, why do you have the right to judge the way life was in the distant past? Why not just learn from the past and reserve judgement of others while just judging yourself?