How a California middle school's history project led to name change [edsource.org]

Donielle Prince 6/23/2112:00 PM

By Ali Tadayon, EdSource, June 21, 2021

The name Juan Crespi never meant much to eighth grader Anaya Zenad and her classmates, other than it was the name of their middle school in El Sobrante.

But after the students researched the Franciscan missionary — and his role in expeditions that paved the way for the brutally oppressive California mission system in the 1700s — they felt the name had to go.

Earlier this year, Zenad joined with faculty to lead a series of community meetings on the school’s decades-old name and petitioned the West Contra Costa Unified school board to change it to something more in line with the school’s values of inclusivity and anti-racism.

[Please click here to read more.]

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