Donald J. Trump: You're Fired (From Consideration To Replace Austin School Name) [UPDATE]

AUSTIN, TX -- Sorry, Trump fans: Robert E. Lee Elementary School in central Austin won't be named after your preferred presidential candidate.

Mere days after disclosing receipt of nearly 250 submissions to rename the school in favor of something less Confederacy, Austin ISD officials have narrowed the list of potential replacement names to eight. The effort to rename the school near the University of Texas-Austin campus is part of a national trend to banish the vestiges of the Civil War-era Confederacy (particularly its support of slavery) on public buildings.

"After a robust community engagement process, the Lee Elementary School’s Campus Advisory Council announced it has identified eight names to be considered for the renaming of Lee Elementary School," AISD officials wrote on their website. "The community submitted hundreds of names from which the eight were chosen."

Trump was essentially fired, at least from consideration to have the school named after him -- even after getting the most submissions (45) from all those tabulated.

It's unclear whether the proposed Trump imprimatur was meant as a joke or if it was genuine. Other names were submitted in that vein as a form of protest over the renaming, including the Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance (!) and the Hypothetical Perfect Person Memorial.

Either way, the culled list was never meant to be based on popularity -- Trump's included.

Plus, if you think about it, the numbers overall for naming the school after him weren't yuuuuuge. So it wasn't necessarily a collusion among district board members or anything like that.

Sidebar: Two of the potential new school names are a creek and a historic park.

The eight potential replacement names, in alphabetical order, follow. Descriptors to each provided by the AISD:

• Barbara Smith Conrad—Internationally acclaimed African-American opera star who completed her studies at the University of Texas despite discrimination-based setbacks.
• Harper Lee—Iconic American novelist best known for “To Kill a Mockingbird.”
• Russell Lee—Neighborhood resident, founding University of Texas photography professor and a critically acclaimed Depression-era photographer.
• Bettie Mann—Beloved former Lee Elementary School teacher of more than 35 years and the first African-American educator at Lee Elementary School.
• Elisabet Ney—Celebrated sculptor and neighborhood resident who immigrated from Germany and is the subject of a popular local museum.
• Kenneth Ragsdale—Former Austin ISD director of music and founder of the band program at Lee Elementary School.
• Waller Creek—Notable local geographic feature shared by neighborhoods served by Lee Elementary School.
• Wheeler’s Grove—Original name of Eastwoods Park, a longtime Juneteenth celebration site and gathering space for historic freedman’s community.

Next, the Campus Advisory Council will cull the list even more, to three names. Those will then be submitted on May 3 to board members, who will pick the winning name on May 23.

**************************************************************************************************

From April 24:

AUSTIN, TX -- More than 200 suggestions to rename Robert E. Lee Elementary have been submitted as part of an effort to disassociate the school's identity from the racist tendencies of the Confederacy.

The top name to emerge from the submissions: Donald Trump.

Austin ISD officials have sought for months to change the name of the school, with members of the campus advisory council voting in January to take steps to begin the process. The local move is part of a nationwide movement involving the renaming of sites named after Confederate figures.

The national trend at re-naming sites with Confederacy ties began in earnest after the Charleston church massacre in June of 2015, when 21-year-old Dylann Roof killed nine parish members (including the senior pastor, state senator Clementa C. Pinckney) in a self-confessed move to ignite a race war.

The local effort yielded a number of submissions to rename the elementary school, located a few blocks away from the University of Texas at Austin campus. Entries were accepted through April 15.

A total of 240 name-change submissions were received. According to the Austin American-Statesman, the top submissions for a new name are:

• Donald J. Trump Elementary, with 45 entries
• Russell Lee Elementary, garnering 32 entries
• Harper Lee Elementary, 30
• Elizabeth Ney Elementary, 15
• Lee Elementary, 13
• Dr. Frances J. Nesmith Elementary, 13

Another 34 submissions were received to keep the name as it is.

The Statesman reports other submissions sent seemingly in the vein of satire or protest at the renaming process (at least one can hope they were satire/protest tactics), included Adolf Hitler School for Friendship and Tolerance; Ignorance is Bliss; Hypothetical Perfect Person Memorial; and Bleeding Heart Liberal.