The Falls Church City Public Schools board in Virginia beclowned itself this month by voting unanimously to remove the names of founders Thomas Jefferson and George Mason from an elementary school and a high school, respectively.

The names will be removed because each of the famed Virginians owned slaves. The change, said board Chairman Greg Anderson, is “a necessary part of our equity work,” adding that it is important that the school community “feel safe, supported, and inspired.” Other board members repeated the mantra that the founders’ names made children feel “marginalized or uncomfortable.”