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Passionate debate over Lee High School name change continues

7 years 10 months 2 weeks ago Thursday, June 09 2016 Jun 9, 2016 June 09, 2016 11:04 PM June 09, 2016 in News
Source: WBRZ

BATON ROUGE - The controversial potential name change for Lee High School was dicussed again at a community meeting Thursday night.


Some believe the new multi-million dollar school should be separated from the name "Lee," which refers to Confederate General Robert E. Lee. Others believe the "Lee" moniker is part of a long line of tradition.

Thursday's forum was the third time the issue has been discussed in the past two weeks. On Tuesday, May 31st, a panel met to discuss potential new names for the school, which they recommended to the East Baton Rouge Parish School Board. But when a committee met the following Thursday, they couldn't decide on a name and decided to holdoff on making a decision.


During Thursday's meeting, students, alumni, and other concerned Baton Rouge residents has some more suggests for new names.


"They've already got Lee up there," one man suggested, referring to the Lee signage already posted throughout the building." "That was a mistake, so why don't we go with Bruce Lee, Spike Lee, somebody. Are you ready, Harry Lee even."


Removing the references to "Lee" from the school could cost several hundred thousand dollars.


"So if we feel like we don't need to change the signage, we just need to be Harper Lee High School," a student said, referring to the author of the classic novel To Kill a Mockingbird."


Others maintain the "Lee should be removed altogether.


"I don't think anyone would name a high school Osama Bin Laden High School," another speaker said.  "I think people would find that offensive to America."


School leaders are expected to discuss the issue again at a meeting next Thursday.

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