Lee Renaming Brings Out Butter-Knife-Sharp Wit

Not Funny. (Photo by Gary Miller)

The political sage Homer Simpson once mused, "When will people learn democracy doesn't work?" Austin Independent School District trustees may be regretting soliciting proposals to rename Robert E. Lee Ele­men­tary, after the most nominated name turned out to be Donald J. Trump, and there was some real nastiness further down the list. As AISD board president Kendall Pace tactfully responded to the public input, "Keep Austin weird, right?"

It seemed like a good idea at the time: After community protest, on March 28 the board voted to start the process of renaming the campus after someone or something less controversial than the Confederate general (see "Lee Elementary No Longer Lee Elementary," April 1).

Careful what you wish for. When the list of names suggested by the general public was released on April 22, it was reminiscent of 2011, when there was a push to rename Solid Waste Services the Fred Durst Society of the Humanities and Arts (see "City Hall Hustle: Solid Waste Rocks!," Feb. 11, 2011), or the more recent fiasco in the UK, with overwhelming public support for naming a $300 million research vessel Boaty McBoatface. In fact, the long list submitted via the AISD website contained Boaty McBoatface, Schoolie McSchoolface, Schooly McSchoolerson, and Schooly McSchoolerton.

Here's the list of the top vote-getters, as nominated via the AISD website.

• • 45 votes: Donald J. Trump
• • 34 votes: Robert E. Lee
• • 32 votes: Russell Lee
• • 30 votes: Harper Lee
• • 15 votes: Elisabet Ney
• • 13 votes: Dr. Frances J. Nesmith
• • 13 votes: Lee Elementary
• • 8 votes (tie): Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance, Waller Creek Elementary
• • 6 votes (tie): E. Guy Bizzell, Liz Carpenter, Kennedi C., Richard "Cactus" Pryor

However, just as the UK rejected Boaty McBoatface, the Lee Campus Advisory Committee swiftly whittled the list down to eight names for further consideration:

• • Barbara Smith Conrad, opera star and UT graduate
• • Bettie Mann, Lee's first African-American teacher
• • Elisabet Ney, sculptor
• • Harper Lee, author
• • Kenneth Ragsdale, former AISD director of music
• • Russell Lee, UT photography professor and Depression-era photojournalist
• • Waller Creek, which runs near the campus
• • Wheeler's Grove, the original name of nearby Eastwoods Park

The CAC will further narrow that list to their top three choices, to present to the board for a final vote on May 23.

But efforts are still afoot to prevent the name change from taking place. On April 25, the Historic Landmark Commission mulled zoning the school historic, at the request of a couple of applicants who want to keep the original name. The Commission postponed making any decision until June, and asked that AISD and the city write a memorandum of understanding that any name change be delayed until that June vote.