{"id":28575,"date":"2017-08-16T17:07:47","date_gmt":"2017-08-16T22:07:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/?p=28575"},"modified":"2017-12-01T11:53:27","modified_gmt":"2017-12-01T17:53:27","slug":"spurred-by-violence-in-charlottesville-oklahoma-city-public-school-leaders-consider-changing-school-names","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/2017\/08\/16\/spurred-by-violence-in-charlottesville-oklahoma-city-public-school-leaders-consider-changing-school-names\/","title":{"rendered":"Spurred By Violence In Charlottesville, Oklahoma City Public School Leaders Consider Changing School Names"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"attachment_28576\"  class=\"wp-caption module image right\" style=\"max-width: 620px;\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-28576\" alt=\"Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Aurora Lora is considering changing the names of four elementary schools. \" src=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/08\/20170816-AuroraLora-SchoolNames_WEB.jpg\" width=\"620\" height=\"413\" srcset=\"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/08\/20170816-AuroraLora-SchoolNames_WEB.jpg 620w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/08\/20170816-AuroraLora-SchoolNames_WEB-500x333.jpg 500w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/08\/20170816-AuroraLora-SchoolNames_WEB-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/files\/2017\/08\/20170816-AuroraLora-SchoolNames_WEB-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 620px) 100vw, 620px\" \/><\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-media-credit\">Emily Wendler \/ StateImpact Oklahoma<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-caption-text\">Oklahoma City Public Schools Superintendent Aurora Lora is considering changing the names of four elementary schools.<\/p>\n<\/div><p>Recent violent events in Charlottesville have spurred Oklahoma City Public School board members to consider the significance of school names like Lee, Jackson, Stand Watie, and Wheeler.<\/p><p>The four schools are named after Confederate Civil War officers, and board members have expressed interest in changing the school names.<!--more--><\/p><p>Superintendent Aurora Lora supports the idea, and said it\u2019s appropriate to consider whether the Confederate officers represent the values of the school district in 2017.<\/p><p>\u201cDiversity is what makes our school district really special,\u201d she said, \u201cAnd I want to make sure every student feels valued, and if school names are something that are not helping kids feel valued then I would support changing those.\u201d<\/p><p>Lora said she intends to engage the school\u2019s communities in conversations about the names, and gauge whether there\u2019s enthusiasm for changing them.<\/p><p>\u201cI\u2019m not interested in forcing a name change on any community that does not feel it\u2019s necessary,\u201d she said.<\/p><p>Lora said she\u2019s already heard from some families that think the names are offensive, and others who say they\u2019re a part of history and should stay.<\/p><p>She says the community conversations will last throughout the school year, and if a majority of people are in favor of change, she\u2019ll make a proposal to the school board. The ultimate vote will then be up to the school board.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Recent violent events in Charlottesville have spurred Oklahoma City Public School board members to consider the significance of school names like Lee, Jackson, Stand Watie, and Wheeler.The four schools are named after Confederate Civil War officers, and board members have expressed interest in changing the school names.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[717,716],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28575"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28575"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28575\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28882,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28575\/revisions\/28882"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28575"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28575"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateimpact.npr.org\/oklahoma\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28575"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}