(upbeat music) - Oh hey Myles, how are you?

- Hey Lauren, what's up?

- Are you going to the pep rally tonight?

- Yeah you'll see me there.

- Yay, go Poop Face High.

- Go Turds.

- Yay.

- I just don't think I can get past that name.

What up, Myles Bess here.

Journalist, and host of this super cool show you're watching right now.

We call it Above the Noise.

Now I really didn't go to a high school named after poop, but would it really be worse than going to a high school named after any of these people?

I mean just take a look at this list.

Well, that's kind of the question that a lot of students around the country are asking.

Students throughout the US are leading the charge to cancel their school name and opting for a new one.

So today we're gonna explore this issue, and we're asking how do we decide if, when, and how to rename a school?

Now honestly it feels like a no-brainer to me to change schools named after Confederate leaders.

I mean the Confederacy lost.

Where else in the world do you see names of history's losers on government buildings?

To many, these names symbolize slavery and reinforce the ideas of white superiority.

But it can get tricky with other school names that are in more of like a gray area.

There are lots of famous people who did positive and sketchy things, and it can be a tough call to decide when the bad outweighs the good.

Like I'm lactose intolerant, but I love ice cream and milkshakes, so the regret is definitely worth it for me.

The good most certainly outweighs the bad there.

But I'm not trying to equate dairy to members of the Klan.

I mean, take Thomas Jefferson, there are tons of schools named after this dude.

And his history isn't all peaches and cream.

Now we did ask some real life high school students what they thought about him, and some other controversial figures who are on the school name chopping block.

Today, we are talking about, you know, should schools basically be named after people.

So we're gonna play a cool little game, and we're gonna see what happens.

So, start ripping.

- Had four, oh, four children with an enslaved woman, he started a relationship when she was in her teens.

I already know who this is.

- Already, it's like not someone you'd want as a role model for your children.

- That's sticky tape.

Tricked Native Americans to give up their land.

Not good.

- Enslaved over 600 people over the course of his lifetime.

- I just feel like that's a lot of people.

- Manipulation, enslavement, pedophilia, not good.

- That's a terrible trifecta.

- Signed law ending the Transatlantic slave trade.

- Okay, that seems.

- Commendable.

- Yeah, that's good.

- Good for you.

- One of the founding fathers of the United States.

- Yeah we know.

- Wait, before we reveal the name, any final guesses.

- Thomas Jefferson.

- Good old Thomas, Thomas Jefferson.

- Reveal the name.

- Bam, Thomas Jefferson.

With everything we know on this list, should Thomas Jefferson have schools named after?

- Too much bad, not enough good.

- In this situation, people will be like oh, this is cancel culture, you're trying to cancel someone who seemed important.

And I don't think anyone is saying that we shouldn't still teach about Thomas Jefferson, or talk about him.

- Just don't idolize him like Americans do.

- Yeah, and we need to talk about yes, he did these things which were great for some people, but we need to talk about who they were great for and some of the people who were left out of that conversation.

- Shout out to our friends at Bayvac, and Camp Real Stories.

Now we know we cherry picked some of these moments in history to prove a point, and we are here in the Bay area which is in California which is known to be this deep blue progressive place, so we know that a lot of students around the country don't necessarily feel the same way about these historical figures.

But the argument for renaming schools generally goes something like this.

If a school is named after someone who has harmed or oppressed groups in the past, it's just not that welcoming to all students.

Especially those who are members of the groups that were harmed.

It'd be like if the three little pigs went to a school called Big Bad Wolf Elementary School.

But here's a question, does changing the name of schools really solve any problems?

Or is it just like an empty symbolic gesture?

Like it's way easier to put a bumper sticker on your car demanding climate action than it is to actually go out and plant some trees, you know what I mean?

So lots of people argue that renaming schools doesn't actually do anything to solve real problems of inequity in education.

Instead, we should be using that time and money to tackle more pressing issues, like, yikes.

Now see, that's a real problem right there, we need to focus on that.

And a lot of times, renaming schools isn't just like a drop in the old bucket, it can be hella expensive.

In Marin County in California, Sir Francis Drake High School just got renamed to Archie Williams High School, and it allegedly cost in the ballpark of $430,000.

Now I sure hope that Archie Williams is squeaky clean enough to justify that price tag.

Like what would you do if you found out Archie Williams did something like really bad and obnoxious and it's like oh no we gotta change the name again.

Is the school gonna shell out like another half a million dollars to change the name of the school to some other figure?

And then like a few years down the line we have to do this all over again and over again and over again, I don't know, that's just me, sorry.

But to be fair, many schools undergoing name changes, including Archie Williams High are raising the funds separately so it won't come from the regular old school budget.

Others say that we shouldn't be judging people in the past by today's moral standards, it was a different time, a different context.

And then there is the sentimental arguments.

Now I can kind of get behind that, alumni tend to have a lot of pride for their school and they don't wanna give up a name because they have a personal connection with it.

They feel like it would be erasing history and a portion of themselves.

So as America continues to reckon with racial injustice, renaming schools is probably going to keep being a hot topic.

And honestly, this whole thing has got me thinking, should schools even be named after people?

I mean who wouldn't want to go to Grizzly Bear High, or Kimono Dragon Elementary School.

I'm sure that there's a lot of different names that you can think of too.

Anyway, I'm clearly rambling at this point, and I would love to hear your thoughts on all of this.

Should schools be renamed if they are named after people with problematic pasts?

What do you think the criteria should be when it comes to renaming schools?

Let us know in the comments below, and if you like this episode you should check out our episode on free speech and then school dress code.

You know we were talking about schools, or we're kind of talking about free speech.

It makes sense if you really think about it.

But until next time, I'm your host, Myles Bess.

Peace out.