"Yes We Can!" Students Rename School for Obama
By scarce Monday Nov 24, 2008 6:00pmA New York elementary school has been re-named in honor of President-elect Barack Obama. Ludlum Elementary School in Long Island's Hempstead Union Free School District was re-named at a board meeting Thursday, at the request of numerous school students.
"Just to watch these kids after the board voted on what they asked them to do, they were so elated," school district superintendent Dr. Joseph Laria told ABC News. "You want to talk about "Yes we can!"? That was a lesson in democracy."
Effective immediately, Ludlum will now be known as Barack Obama Elementary School, following a decision by the board to adopt the resolution drafted by students and staff.
Before this month's election, the 5th grade class had a mock presidential debate at the school, which sits near Hofstra University, site of the third and final presidential debate between Obama and Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz.
"The kids were really into it," Laria said. "They had this fabulous debate…it was just outstanding."
"The children received such a response from the community and the parents that they were so energized that they said that if Obama becomes president, we would be so proud to have our school named after him, especially because this is an African-American and Latino community that celebrates diversity," said Laria.
Most of the school's students are African-American or Latino, the superintendent stated.
So on Thursday night the kids came before the board to read essays describing what they had learned from the mock debate experience and appealing for the school to be re-named.
Their resolution read as follows:
"Whereas the Ludlum School students conducted a mock presidential debate related to the recent presidential elections and whereas the students did a wonderful job of carrying out their tasks and demonstrating their patriotism at an early age and whereas in recognition of their efforts and the victorious feat of Sen. Barack Obama in becoming the first African-American president of the United States, it be resolved that the Hempstead Board of Education proudly renames Ludlum Elementary School as the Barack Obama Elementary School."
And according to the AP, other schools may soon follow suit.
In Portland, Ore., students want to rename Clark K-8 At Binnsmead school. Elsewhere on Long Island, the Clear Stream Avenue School in Valley Stream will consider a renaming resolution in December.
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At least wait until Obama is out of office.
And letting elementary school children name their schools? If my son (now 18) and his friends had the option, they would have attended Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles Elementary and Zelda Junior High.
Comparing Obama to the TMNT? That's just not right.
I think that HOPE can be applied to kids, too, whom, btw, are future voters.
I think good on them...whether he is in or out of office.
Yes we can! Positive in a world of negativity!
No. I'm saying that children are easily impressed.
I think the first (half) black president is something to be impressed about. That he won having a clean campaign v. one with nothing but lies and vitriol, is something to be impressed about. That he is intelligent and thoughtful, that is something to be impressed about.
But hey, that's just me. I am a big kid at heart.
But should winning an election get a school named after him? Geez, he hasn't even been sworn in yet.
Back to my first statement, though: decorum. I just think there's something a bit odd naming buildings for living people.
we will just have to disagree here.
I see a lot of African American youth in the video above. I think it is something for these children to believe that they can be anything they want, should they work hard enough for it (as Obama did) - something which many never felt before.
I am all for it.
Like "George H. W. Bush International Airport" odd? Gimme a break...
the, what, 40 different roads, bridges, highways, byways, tollways and what not just in the Houston and Dallas areas.
The Laird "Bad Ass" Hamilton School of the Performing Arts:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Laird_Hamilton
Hamilton
Then this
Yeah, Laird is pretty incredible.
Nice guy too.
Thanks for sharing those Laird Hamilton videos.
Truly awesome.
too cool
awwww thats so cute!
Thanks for this story :D So great to hear things like this.
He, and we, did make history. The wingnuts, however, will go bonkers over this. BTW, was that sewage waste treatment plant ever named after GWB?
Yes they did rename the Sewage plant George W Bush Sewage Plant!!!
you sure? That looked like a fail vote to me.
Jeez, I'm sooooo stupid. I just misread that thing. First I assumed that it would pass than I saw something else on the site and it didn't register in my brain. Sorrrrry.
I had to look hard for the actual results.
We didn't rename the Sewage Plant. We didn't want to sully the name of a perfectly good, function sewage treatment plant with that person's name. We felt it wouldn't be fair to the sewage treatment plant.
Not only did it fail but it failed by a 2-1 margin.
So where was the first George W. Bush Elementarary School?
so he can start attending in January. He will bring his own My Pet Goat as a contribution.
I thought one had to be dead 12 years, before stuff got named after them.
it was named after then sitting president roosevelt when it was build during the new deal
it still stands today
and the kids thought this up...so i say more power to them
whatever gets them motivated
People have to be dead for a certain amount of time to get on postage stamps. Ex-pres don't have to be dead long, just dead.
So is the local high school gonna be named after Heidi Klum?
Well what about Ludlum? Doesn't he have a say in the matter? What, they just change the name of the school without even asking?
Funny.
cuz if it was...i woulda kept the original
i really like obama...but ludlum is god
and boy, is michelle gonna have a time keeping barack's head planted firmly on his shoulders
lay odds that she is telling the staff at the wh that barack must do the dishes every night
put a pic of bush at the bottom of the toilet...now i get to shit and piss on him like he has done to me for the past 8 years
I will rename my toilet scrubber the official George W. Bush shit cleaner upper...something the original never did. And, I get the added bonus of throwing the damned thing out when it stops doing its job.
you got me to laugh. Too funny!
http://www.thingsyouneverknew.com/p2p/basicSe...
It's where I get all my Christmas presents.
for what's supposed to be an uplifting story. ;D
sewage treatment plant after Bush. I think the only reason it didn't pass is that they didn't want his name on ANYTHING.
Your theory explains it as well for me as any could, but I still feel a strange sense of disappointment about it :-/
tthis means they will have to change the school stationary, the letters on thier track, football and basketball shirts the name on the school bus , lots of work to do, busy busy busy!
Supports the local economy. :-)
It a fucking elementary school. If they have a football team and a track and basketball team then they are doing well.
your right!who gives a shit
One gets the distinct impression that not too many schools in Afghanistan will be renaming their learning centers after Barack Obama if Obama fulfills his pledge of sending yet more American soldiers into that war-ravaged country, where they can add more death and destruction and misery and suffering to the already damaged lives of the Afghan people.
n/t
And a partridge in a pear tree...
I laughed at some of the comments they are great.
Now it is strange that a living person who hasn't taken the office of the President yet gets a school named for him. But this is history and the kids know it. As some adult voters contiue to try to destroy Obama to many Americans have welcomed change and want someone to get us out of this recession. No one ever wants to admit they were wrong or used but we have been by President Bush for 7 years and he's still doing it. Kids watch their parents lose their jobs and homes so this Obama/Biden Administration is their hope that their lives will be better.
I'm loving it, if for no other reason than for the stroke it will cause Hannity and O'Reilly. Let me know if they have anything to say because I will not be watching them.
You not only could, you did!
They are building a jr high in my NY neighborhood and I wanted it to be named the John Lennon Intermediate School. John Lennon loved NY and was a huge booster of the city during the Bad Times.
I'm not trying to get off topic, but for 3 years I used to provide services to all Hempstead schools, including Ludlum. It's incredible how unfair our educational system. The schools are falling apart, very few have a cafeteria so the kids have to take their lunch to classroom and eat at their desks. This is just the beginning, from there it gets worse. On the other hand Syosset is just swimming in money and they have all these dumb and unecessary purchases because they have to spend their budget. Do you think I'm exagerating? The kitchen has a chef, I've seem them doing pizza from scratch. Their menu is incredible.
We definetely need reforms as soon as possible.
Just wanted to make sure I wasn't repeating a query further up.
Who was Ludlum, and why was the school originally named for him?
I don't know, but I do know that the memory of others ought not be cast to the four winds. While I'm sure it doesn't matter to the Ludlum presently mouldering in the grave, I think it's fair to query whose memory is being tossed aside here.
I say this remembering that two peoples' memories were tossed to the ash heap in re-naming my hometown's high schools to a bland, banal, consolidated "Florence High School." (At the time of the consolidation, I argued the new school should be named "Dred Scot High School," or "W.C. Handy High School" since both were notable, memorable members of the community.
What this school board did was probably OK, but there's something disturbing in the process of uprooting such an honor. Is "Ludlum" remembered anywhere else? Is it just the name of the local community?
I'll wait for the re-naming of a George Washington or Thomas Jefferson or John Adams High School before I down-shift to "Now, wait a minute."
Built in the 1920s, the Ludlum Elementary School was named after Dr. Charles Ludlum, a local physician who served on the school board for about 40 years.
Per Fox.
Just one of the many edifices so far named in honor of our PE, with many more to come. There's an island in the Caribbean that re-named it's highest mountain "Mount Obama". On the other hand, I can't think of any building, place or object that would welcome the dubious distinction of bearing the GW Boosh name. Well, on second thought, I like the suggestion above from "Uncle Joe Mccarthy", about putting Boosh's pic at the bottom of the toilet bowl. There just may be a huge market for something like that.
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