(Headline USA) The San Francisco public school district spent more than $500,000 in taxpayer funds to fight lawsuits over its decision to remove a mural of George Washington from one of its schools.
The school board decided last year to remove the mural of Washington from Washington High School, arguing that it was “offensive and demeaning to Native Americans and African Americans.” Parents and members of the school alumni association, however, opposed the move, and filed a lawsuit against the school district.
The district eventually settled the lawsuit by agreeing to pay the association $345,000 in addition to the $180,000 it owed its own lawyers. It paid for these expenses using a fund allocated for facility improvements to the area’s schools, according to Citizens Bond Oversight Committee Chairman Rex Ridgeway.
“I want them to put the money back,” Ridgeway said, according to the San Francisco Chronicle. “They’ve been using this as a slush fund as far as I’m concerned.”
However, San Francisco Unified School District lawyer Daniel Houck argued the use of the school’s funds was justified. The funds allocated for facility improvements “allow for remediation of health and safety risks,” which included the mural and the legal battle over it because the mural “is a part of a school building that ‘caused psychological harm to students.’”
Ridgeway vowed to hold the school district accountable.
“I’m not saying I’m not for correcting wrongs; I’m a black man,” he said. “But is it a proper use or improper use of bond funds for the construction rehabilitation of these school buildings? My position is no.”
The school district agreed earlier this summer to drop its plans to cover up the Washington mural in a 4-3 vote, after several woke school board members were ousted in a recent election.
The vote came in response to a 2021 court ruling on the alumni association’s lawsuit, with the court deciding that the school board acted too hastily to cover the Washington mural and violated state law by failing to conduct an environmental review of the plan first.
