{"id":359230,"date":"2021-03-31T12:31:34","date_gmt":"2021-03-31T16:31:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=359230"},"modified":"2021-03-31T12:31:35","modified_gmt":"2021-03-31T16:31:35","slug":"obama-canceled-chicago-area-immigration-activists-protest-renaming-middle-school-after-former-president","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/obama-canceled-chicago-area-immigration-activists-protest-renaming-middle-school-after-former-president\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama Canceled? Chicago Area Immigration Activists Protest Renaming Middle School After Former President"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">26<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fobama-canceled-chicago-area-immigration-activists-protest-renaming-middle-school-after-former-president%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=359230&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1868.jpeg\" class=\"ff-og-image-inserted\" \/><\/div>\n<p>Chicago-area immigration activists are protesting a decision to rename an elementary school after former President Barack Obama because of the Democrat\u2019s record on deporting illegal immigrants, even though the school is currently named after Thomas Jefferson.<\/p>\n<p>The Waukegan, Illinois, Board of Education decided several weeks ago to rename two \u201ccontroversially\u201d named elementary schools, Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Daniel Webster Middle School, over concerns that both historical figures supported the practice of slavery. \u201cRenaming committees were formed for each school and included people in the community, students, and staff,\u201d ABC <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/waukegan-public-schools-barack-and-michelle-obama-thomas-jefferson-middle-school-daniel-webster\/10459946\/\">Chicago reported earlier in 2020<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAfter a group of more than 80 Jefferson students and community members petitioned the board in June to change the name there, board President Brandon Ewing pushed his colleagues to switch the names of both Jefferson and Webster middle school,\u201d the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.chicagotribune.com\/suburbs\/lake-county-news-sun\/ct-lns-waukegan-school-board-st-0311-20210310-fak52z3nifetjbha46juuxilvy-story.html\">Chicago Tribune added<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Similar efforts across the country have been met with varying levels of resistance. Many schools and buildings in the Chicago area have been renamed after complaints that their namesake historical figures are no longer acceptable to modern sensibilities, and school districts like the San Francisco United School District have undertaken massive, district-wide renaming efforts in the hopes of scrubbing any controversial reference from school buildings.<\/p>\n<p>The SFUSD effort was tabled indefinitely after parents noted that the \u201chistorical research\u201d that helped identify \u201ccontroversial\u201d school names was less than thorough.<\/p>\n<p>In Chicago, though, the proposed new name for Thomas Jefferson Elementary School \u2014 Barack and Michelle Obama Elementary \u2014 has hit an entirely different snag. It turns out that, according to \u201cLatinx\u201d members of the Waukegan community, the former president is, himself, a controversial figure.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe school board heard concerns from the public Tuesday night over one of the finalists in the running to be the new name for Thomas Jefferson Middle School,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/abc7chicago.com\/waukegan-public-schools-barack-and-michelle-obama-thomas-jefferson-middle-school-daniel-webster\/10459946\/\">ABC News reported<\/a>. \u201cThe country\u2019s first Black President and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama is one of the top three choices for the school\u2019s new name but is drawing opposition in the area with a large Latinx population.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI will not be part of renaming a school after someone who did not and does not represent the undocumented community,\u201d one school board member, who admitted to having been brought to the United States illegally as a child, told the board.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFrom the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation,\u201d the head of a local immigration organization told the network. \u201cWe feel that Barack Obama did a disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn\u2019t stop the deportations, the way he promised.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you\u2019re removing the name of Thomas Jefferson \u2013 one oppressor \u2013 the name of Obama is another oppressor and our families do not want to see that name,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n<p>A group opposed to renaming the school after Barack Obama even held a protest outside the school board meeting on Tuesday night, adding to the media attention. Some members have suggested dropping Obama\u2019s name from consideration altogether and, instead, naming the school after the late civil rights icon, John Lewis, or for Cesar Chavez.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Related: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/news\/san-francisco-will-not-rename-controversial-schools-school-board-promises-to-consult-historians\">San Francisco Will Not Rename \u2018Controversial\u2019 Schools, School Board Promises To \u2018Consult Historians<\/a>\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Chicago-area immigration activists are protesting a decision to rename an elementary school after former President Barack Obama because of the Democrat\u2019s record on deporting illegal immigrants, even though the school &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2311448,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1868.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Obama Canceled? Chicago Area Immigration Activists Protest Renaming Middle School After Former President","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-359230","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/fb_image-1868.jpeg","fifu_image_alt":"Obama Canceled? Chicago Area Immigration Activists Protest Renaming Middle School After Former President","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359230","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=359230"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/359230\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2311448"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=359230"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=359230"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=359230"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}