UPDATE: The EBR school system has announced an online survey where community members can suggest a new name for Lee High. You can read more here: https://www.wbrz.com/news/ebr-school-system-launches-online-survey-for-renaming-lee-high-committee-meeting-in-july

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BATON ROUGE- The East Baton Rouge Parish School Board voted in favor of renaming Lee High School following years-long concern over the school being named after a confederate general, Robert E. Lee.

On Thursday evening, board members voted on a resolution to create a renaming committee that consists of two student body members, two individuals that live near the school, two school system employees, and two board members.

It was a unanimous vote that also adopted a slight amendment to change language in the original resolution, it does not change the timeline or process for renaming Lee High. @WBRZ

— Trey Couvillion (@treycouvtv) June 19, 2020

The committee has three weeks to submit a list of three potential school names to replace the current one. 

Superintendent Warren Drake will choose one of the three names submitted and recommend it to the school board.

Board members will ultimately be able to agree with the chosen name, come up with a new one, or decide to not change it at all.

EBR School Board member Dadrius Lanus says he believes there won’t be an issue in getting the school’s name changed this time around.

“I’m more than certain that I think that our board members will stand behind this. Especially considering how many people have been involved in this now. You have parents, you have teachers, you have students, you have educational organizations, you have the business community that have all galvanized support behind this. Because we know that it is wrong to send our students to a school named after someone like that,” Lanus said.

On Wednesday, June 17, city business leaders announced their support to change the name of the high school.

"Our leadership felt it was time to make a change in the name of that school,” Adam Knapp, President, and CEO of the Baton Rouge Area Chamber of Commerce said. 

As the city-parish is in the process of reviewing building names and monuments honoring confederate leaders and other controversial historical figures, the Baton Rouge Area Chamber announced the following statement.

“Inclusive communities start with inclusive schools, in which every student is welcomed to an environment conducive to learning. A school named in honor of a historical figure whose actions sought to preserve and perpetuate the subjugation of Black Americans has no place in an inclusive community. We stand in favor of righting this historical wrong and urge the EBR School Board to take action on this issue.” 

You can read the full petition here: https://p2a.co/XQzQt64