New Haven Board of Education members are questioning the name of its Christopher Columbus Family Academy due to controversy surrounding its namesake.
Board of Education President Darnell Goldson told NBC Connecticut the matter was discussed during a naming-committee meeting earlier this week, which was convened to discuss proposals submitted by the public to rename other New Haven Public School facilities.
Goldson said attaching the name of an explorer who committed atrocities against Native American people's to a modern-day New Haven school is worth re-thinking.
"A majority of the population of that school are descendants of people that these atrocities were committed against," Goldson said.
Yesenia Cesario, whose daughter attends the school, said she thinks the name should be changed and that it's important that the curriculum reflects modern understanding of Columbus's actions in the Americas.
Goldson confirmed the Board of Education does not yet have any plans to initiate a change, and said their meeting agenda was set to discuss only proposals which included whether to rename a pedestrian footbridge at Barnard Environmental Studies Magnet School and the Strong School after President Barack Obama.
