Detroit school officials could rename Dr. Benjamin Carson High School of Science and Medicine because residents near the midtown school reportedly “don’t support the (Trump) administration.”

Detroit school board member LaMar Lemmons is pushing to rename the Carson school because he said some residents object to any association with President Donald Trump. The school is named after famed neurosurgeon and 2016 Republican presidential candidate Ben Carson, who now serves as Trump’s secretary of Housing and Urban Development, The Detroit News reports.

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Lemmons said that while Carson graduated from the district to become a successful leader in the medical world, his name was attached to the building when the district was under the control of an emergency financial manager and residents “don’t support the (Trump) administration.”

The school board ultimately voted 6-1 to begin the process of renaming the school and three others: Harms Elementary, Frederick Douglass Academy, and the Detroit School of the Arts. The measure also started the process for renaming three programs, as well.

Lemmons lit into Carson in an interview with The Washington Post.

“It is synonymous with having Trump’s name on our school in blackface,” he said.

Lemmons claimed Carson “is doing Trump’s bidding and he has adversely affected the African American community in Detroit as well as the nation with his housing policies and he’s allied himself with a president that says he is a white nationalist and sends dog whistles that even the deaf can hear.”

The board member alleged he receives letters from the community asking for Carson’s name to be scrubbed from the building.

Carson graduated from the Motor City’s Southwest High School in 1969 and went on to become a world-renowned pediatric neurosurgeon. He’s received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, mounted a campaign for president of the United States, and now holds an office in the current administration that’s vitally important to the black community.

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Lemmons has a picture of Carson holding his granddaughter during a Detroit church service nearly two decades ago and his family cherished the memory, he said, up until Carson started his political career.

“Had he stayed in medicine, irrespective of his political philosophy or how he voted in private, we would have been happy to put his name on a school,” Lemmons told the Post. “We looked at him as an honored son. He has since, in many of our eyes, disgraced himself.”

The recent school board vote did not change the school’s name, but rather initiated a process to gauge community interest in a name change and solicit potential replacements.

Detroit native Aretha Franklin, the legendary “Queen of Soul” who died Aug. 16, is among suggestions for new names, according to Fox News.

The name changes follow the board’s new process to commemorate, name and rename schools adopted earlier this year. The measure states the board can change a school’s name to recognize “individuals who have made a significant contribution to the enhancement of education.” A new building, redesign, or “the community of the geographic area where the school is located requests a name change that more closely aligns with the history of the locality, or information newly discovered about the current name of the school that is negative in nature” can also trigger a name change, according to the News.

While adults are squabbling about the name on the outside of the district’s school buildings, the students inside are obviously not getting the attention they need.

Detroit schools ranked dead last in the nation for student performance on the National Assessment of Educational Progress in 2018, for at least the second year in a row.

The Detroit Free Press covered the highlights:

  • In fourth-grade math, 4% of Detroit students scored at or above proficient, compared with 36% statewide, 31% in large cities and 40% nationwide for public school students.
  • In fourth-grade reading, 5% of Detroit students scored at or above proficient, compared with 32% statewide, 28% in large cities and 35% nationwide for public school students.
  • In eighth-grade math, 5% of Detroit students scored at or above proficient, compared with 31% statewide, 27% in large cities and 33% nationwide for public school students.
  • In eighth-grade reading, 7% of Detroit students scored at or above proficient, compared with 34% statewide, 27% in large cities and 35% nationwide for public school students.

The striking lack of priorities wasn’t lost on board member Sonya Mays, who questioned the plan to move ahead with community discussions about the name changes.

“I think there are probably other place where staff could be spending their time,” she told the Free Press.

Superintendent Nikolai Vitti, who said Detroit educators “know we can do better” when test results came out in August, doesn’t seem to be too worried about the name changes distracting from more important matters.

“I don’t think it’s overwhelming to where we’ll lose focus of our come mission and work,” he said.

Lemmons told the News he doesn’t expect any schools to change names before next school year.