LAWSUIT PROTESTS SCHOOL’S NAME CHANGE
‘Serra’ dropped from high school; residents say majority ignored
A group of Tierrasanta residents sued San Diego Unified School District on Wednesday for removing Father Junípero Serra’s name from one of its high schools, accusing the district of “cancel culture” and of ignoring a majority of people who wanted to keep the name.
The school board voted 5-0 in March to rename the school Canyon Hills High after a student-led initiative to rebrand the school and change its mascot from the conquistador to a rattler.
Since then some residents have said school board members and Principal Erica Renfree violated citizens’ rights to vote for or against the rebrand.
The lawsuit seeks to change Canyon Hills High back to Junípero Serra High.
“Renfree’s actions have pandered to a false and historically inaccurate narrative and have demonstrated an unconstitutional animus towards this Catholic saint,” said Paul Jonna, a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, in a statement.
The law firm is working with the Thomas More Society, a nonprofit based in Chicago that advocates for religious liberty.
“The key legal issues here are the blatant violations of the Brown Act, which requires public notice of a vote to be taken, as well
as violations of the California and Federal Due Process and Establishment Clauses,” Jonna said.
The lawsuit said the district’s removal of Serra’s name violates the Constitution’s Establishment clause, which prohibits government preference of any religion. The suit said the name change represents disrespect for and hostility toward Christianity and gives preferential treatment to Indigenous spiritual beliefs over Christianity.
Serra, an 18th-century Franciscan friar, came to California to convert Native Americans to Catholicism as part of a larger colonization effort by the Spanish empire. He founded nine
missions, including one in San Diego, where friars urged Native Americans to assimilate to a European way of life, including growing European food.
Various historians depict a conflicting history of Serra.
Some historians critical of Serra note that in the missions, Native Americans had to give up their way of life, worked without pay and endured corporal punishment. Historians said many Native Americans had no choice but to go to the missions because missionaries and the Spanish military had either destroyed or driven away the plants and animals they relied on for food.
Other historians said Serra fought to protect Indigenous people from what would have been worse abuse and exploitation at the hands of the Spanish military. Supporters say it’s unfair to make him the scapegoat for the larger colonization effort that would have happened with or without the missions.
Serra was canonized as a saint by the Catholic Church.
The lawsuit by the Tierrasanta residents also blames critical race theory, spurred by the Black Lives Matter movement, for fueling what they say is antiCatholic sentiment and the erasure of historic figures such as Serra.
Critical race theory is the study of U.S. law and institutions as they intersect with race and racism. Opponents use the phrase to broadly refer to many discussions about race.
“This is another example of the ‘cancel culture’ mentality that radical leftist people in education are trying to force on an unwilling American public,” said Charles LiMandri, a partner at LiMandri & Jonna LLP, in a statement. “Father Serra was a great defender of the indigenous people of California, and he deserves our best efforts to defend his legacy.”
The lawsuit also notes that most people polled during the name change process said they wanted to keep Serra’s name.
In documents Renfree provided to the school board in March, one poll of nearly 500 students, parents and staff showed 57 percent said the school name was fine as is, while 43 percent wanted to discuss changing it.
In another poll of more than 1,200 alumni, 65 percent said they wanted to keep some form of Serra’s name, and the rest were closely split between renaming the school Canyon Hills High and Tierra Canyon.
Renfree could not be reached for comment for this story. She has said recently that all the high school’s students and their families were given an opportunity to weigh in on the school rebrand, alongside every graduating class, incoming students and members of the tribal community.
In a statement, San Diego Unified said students and school staff conducted a transparent and extensive community input campaign, including virtual town halls, social media, media coverage and a formal ballot vote.
The school board alone has the authority to name and rename district schools, the district noted.
Samer Naji, a spokesperson for the district who oversees the name change process, said in June that the rebrand was widely publicized.
“We did get a lot of letters ... of support and of opposition,” he said.
The lawsuit names as defendants Renfree, Naji, School Board President Richard Barrera, School Board Trustee Kevin Beiser, Interim Superintendent Lamont Jackson, Chief of Leadership and Learning Tavga Bustani and Area Superintendent Bruce Bivins.