Detroit school board votes to remove Dr. Ben Carson's name from public high school
WASHINGTON (TND) — Dr. Ben Carson’s name will be scrubbed from a Detroit public high school after the school board voted in favor of removal last month.
The move came after 80% of 1,500 people surveyed said they supported the change. Carson says he's not surprised.
"Cancel culture is alive and well. It’s infiltrating. Political correctness, wokeness, cancel culture, this is going to destroy us as a nation if we don’t get a grip on it," said Carson.
Carson says cancel culture has targeted him but he never considers himself a victim.
Carson’s education started in the Detroit Public School system. Born into poverty and raised in a single-mother household, Carson went from inner-city Detroit to Yale University becoming one of the most influential neurosurgeons of a generation.
His former staff from the Department of Housing and Urban Development penned an op-ed criticizing the move by Detroit Public Schools. The letter included 55 signatures including Alex Coffey who worked as an advisor to Dr. Carson for four years.
"He has impeccable morals, impeccable character," said Coffey. "The students who are at that school, certainly he is somebody they can look up to, that they can try to emulate. He’s a great example of our country."
In the wake of the police killing of George Floyd in 2020, a racial reckoning led to many schools, buildings and roads being renamed.
Robert E. Lee High School in Springfield, Virginia was renamed after prominent African American Democratic Congressman and Civil Rights hero John Lewis.
But righting historical wrongs is not behind the namesake change for Dr. Ben Carson High School. Calls for this change center around his time working for the Trump administration showing the heated political landscape of left vs. right now plays a role in the dedication of public schools.
Carson's team confirms they don't have plans to challenge the name change. Carson released a statement on Facebook saying while the move saddens him he wants the focus to be on the students.
