The school board in South Burlington, Vermont voted on Wednesday to have their nickname “The Rebels” changed. They argued the moniker wasn’t inclusive enough and it made students feel unsafe.
Social justice warriors, the NAACP, and liberal activists have been complaining about the name for years, as reported by the Burlington Free Press.
“It has become crystal clear to me that the current ‘Rebel’ identifier is interfering with all students’ ability to feel safe and included in our schools,” said David Young, South Burlington Schools Superintendent to the crowd at the meeting.
A student representative to the school board Isaiah Hines and the Student Diversity Union led the charge to change the name along with allies at the NAACP. They claimed that “The Rebels” nickname had ties to the Civil War and was racist.
To be clear, Vermont fought against slavery during the Civil War.
The nickname was chosen in the 1960s, over a hundred years after the Civil War had ended. These weren’t ex-Confederates making up the name to revive slavery in Vermont.
It went unnoticed until 2015 when social justice warriors tried to link the nickname to Dylann Roof’s racist killings of nine African Americans attending church in Charleston, South Carolina.
After that, they demanded the name, which was in no way linked to the shooting, be changed for students to feel included and safe in the school.
Ironically, while teachers, the NAACP, and a handful of social justice warriors were fighting for a name change, it was students at the school who were demanding the name be kept.
“I view it as an honor to be a Rebel, and I will always view it as an honor to be a Rebel,” said one student to the school board.
None of the student’s words could stop the name change, after all, what could students possibly know about what made them feel safe?
