By Steve Gunn
EAGnews.org

SALINAS, Calif. – People who hate America are prepared to name a California elementary school after a famous criminal who hated America.

Tiburcio Vasquez was a Mexican citizen who lived in 19th century California. According to his biography he came from a wealthy Mexican family that owned a great deal of property before it was lost following the U.S. takeover of the territory.

MORE NEWS: From Classroom to Consulate Chef: Culinary Student Lands Dream Job at U.S. Embassy in Paris

Vasquez turned to a life of crime as a teen and served time in prison for stealing horses, according to a report from ABC15.com. Later he and his partners in crime apparently wandered the rugged country of Southern California and were involved in a string of robberies and murders.

He was eventually convicted of murder and hanged.

But Vasquez clearly was not forgotten. A special committee charged with picking the name of a new elementary to be opened this year in the Alisal Union School District decided to honor him.

The school board apparently approved of the selection.

One retired teacher who served on the committee said Vasquez is seen as a hero in the community due to his anti-American sentiments.

“We see him as a fighter for social justice of the Mexican-Californio whose rights have been deprived,” the former teacher said.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

An obviously biased biography from the Historical Society of Southern California said Vasquez “hated the Americano with good reason and always in his mind was a thought, which had activated many of his race before him, that he could help get the Americans out and in some way regain California for Mexico.”

Since when do freedom fighters steal horses and commit murder? If this man’s motivations were political at all, he would qualify as a terrorist, not a revolutionary.

Revolutionaries raise armies and go face-to-face with their enemies on battlefields in an honorable fashion. Terrorists rob and kill randomly.

The plan to name a new school after this person is yet another sign that leftist, anti-American educators are taking over our schools and filling the air with their radical beliefs.

The message they want to send children is that it’s okay to fight injustice through criminal activities. This is not a great idea in a town like Salinas, which already has high rates of youth violence and murder, according to the school district superintendent.

Whatever happened to naming schools after people like Ghandi or King, who successfully fought injustice through nonviolent means?

In any case, it’s not fair to force American taxpayers to build a school that will be named after a criminal who hated our nation.