Schools Named After Robert E. Lee Are Avoiding Costly Sign Prices By Finding Other Famous People Named Lee
The North East Independent School District in Texas was facing pressure to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School, amid national protests over the legacy of the Confederate general.
But officials were concerned about the estimated $1.3 million it would cost to remove and replace signs, redo a turf field, order new uniforms and make other changes large and small.
So they decided to rebrand the school Legacy of Educational Excellence, and use LEE High School as its nickname, starting last school year. The move, which included keeping the school’s gray and red colors, saved about $1 million.
Obviously we’re in the day and age where you need to walk on eggshells when dealing with the names of schools and their mascots that were made a hundred years ago. And aside from using a Native American mascot with a big ol’ red nose, the next biggest no-no is to promote the Confederacy and their figures. It’s distasteful. And unfortunately for damn near one million elementary schools in the South, districts already under budget constraints do not have the means necessary to replace the sign out front, the name on the building, and all of the features inside. So what are they doing? Just ripping down the word Robert and finding a new ‘Lee’ to name their school after.
Now whatever side of the Mason Dixon Line your great great grand-daddy grew up on, I don’t care. Keep your thoughts on the commander of the Army of Northern Virginia to yourself. The point of this blog is that it is absolutely hilarious that schools are just rebranding themselves to any Lee that isn’t named Robert.
With this story going viral today from the Wall Street Journal, different Lees are now chiming in, trying to get a school named after themselves.
I love it. But I think we could be better. How about “Swae Lee School of the Arts”, so we can then have “Bruce Lee School of the (Martial) Arts”.
And then Spike Lee School of the Visual Arts.
And Sara Lee School of the Culinary Arts.
And Stan Lee School of the Graphic Arts.
I’m sure I’m missing some easy ones, but I feel like those would cover a wide range of skill sets for the next generations best and brightest. They can specialize instead of just going to the basic Robert E. Lee Elementary School. Oh, and for the well hung kids, we can send them to Tommy Lee’s School for Gifted.
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