Last month, we learned that parents in Frisco, Texas were raising hell over a new local high school’s name: “Lebanon High School.”

The argument was that they didn’t want the school to share its name with a Middle East nation… even though the origin of the name in this case was the community of farmers who lived in the area before Frisco was established. (Indeed, there was a Lebanon School in the area that closed in 1947.)

But that backstory didn’t matter because the prejudice against the name — which is actual Islamophobia — had already taken root. They couldn’t just name it Lebanon without creating an uproar amongst the hyper-reactive citizens who had no sense of the town’s history. (Or the country’s, for that matter. The nation of Lebanon is more than 40% Christian.)

Well, it looks like they’ve finally resolved the issue… kind of:

In a split vote, trustees approved modifying the name of a new Frisco high school but the decision still upset some opposed to having “Lebanon” included. Last night trustees amended the name of what will be the district’s ninth high school to Lebanon Trail High School.

Keep in mind there’s no “Lebanon Trail” in the area, but that’s besides the point. Will it satisfy the complainers? Of course not (though it does avoid the problem of having two high schools in the district with the initials LHS).

One seventh-grader who expects to attend Lebanon Trail said students should have had a say in the name. “We just want something to look forward to going into our high school years,” the student told trustees.

Trust me, seventh-grader: By the time you enter high school, no one will care what the school’s name is. This argument will fade away within a month or two. It’s silly that anyone — especially the adults — had a problem with it in the first place.

(Thanks to Casey for the link)



