On Tuesday, ABC Chicago reported the Waukegan Board of Education met to decide the renaming of two different schools that were offensive to the surrounding population. The two schools are called Thomas Jefferson Middle School and Daniel Webster Middle School.
The community’s reason for changing the names is because former President Thomas Jefferson owned slaves and former Senator Daniel Webster supported slavery.
One of the top three contenders for the schools to be renamed to are former president and First Lady, Barack and Michelle Obama.
That didn’t sit well with Julie Contreras, leader of “United Giving Hope,” a shelter for undocumented children at the Southern Border.
She said in an interview with ABC Chicago, “From the time Barack Obama became President until 2017 when he left, he today is still the highest-ranking president with deportations in our nation. We feel that Barack Obama did a disservice to us. He denied us, and he didn’t stop the deportations, the way he promised.”
Contreras continued, “If you’re removing the name of Thomas Jefferson – one oppressor – the name of Obama is another oppressor and our families do not want to see that name.”