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Support Sir Francis Drake No Name Change Group!

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★ Our small but mighty group behind the scenes has been working hard to fight the proposed name change of Sir Francis Drake High School in San Anselmo. We are the No Name Change Coalition, the organizers of this fundraiser and we need your support. ★
The school and Board of Trustees forced this change without input from the community that loves, built and has supported the school for 70 years. Drake and it's community are one, and we should have a vote, but we won't get one. This move to change the name of the school will not improve racism or make people of color feel better about the racism they encounter in their school and their country. This is NOT the answer and the information they are using against Sir Francis Drake is not accurate. Not even close.
We get 2 minutes to speak on Zoom calls and can't get questions answered. This is NOT community involvement. They took the name down from every place in the school, took down pennants and trophies from years of dedicated athletes and winning teams who brought a deep sense of pride to the school - why? Seeing decades of achievement causes people pain because the name Drake is on the trophies??  REALLY?    
★There was a Change .org petition started a few months ago by a recent Drake grad that makes excellent points about what steps should be taken to improve race relations. She directed it to Board Superintendent Tara Taupier and Principal Liz Seabury, demanding that the faculty at Drake High become more diverse. Over 4,000 people have signed this.  Why is there no action? No acknowledgment? 
**★ Look at this wording - NO MENTION of a school name change, but places the blame directly on the District and the school administration.   Recent grad  "S" writes:  "I believe finding a solution to racism and ignorance starts at a local level. One local issue that affects me personally is the lack of diversity within the Sir Francis Drake High School staff.  Before going to college I only had the experience of learning under one teacher that wasn't white, in a Spanish class.  Many people that I grew up with never got the opportunity to learn under a person of color.  Although this may not seem like a glaring issue, students see teachers as powerful and they can have profound effects over their life, not seeing people of color in this way can easily create ignorance and a system that favors white supremacy and racial intolerance.  I am asking for Tamalpais Union High School District to acknowledge its lack of diversity and prioritize it in their hiring practices by actively recruiting from areas where diversity is already established. This can include recruiting from historically Black colleges and advertising job openings in places with high minority populations. >> If the Tamalpais Union High School District does not acknowledge their active discrimination and refuses to recruit minority candidates, then they are simply part of the problem, not the solution." <<<

★ Excellent. This is very important! Instead of choosing to make positive changes with immediate  impact that can be measured, the decision makers instead opt for a name change, a vanity project that will waste a half a million dollars, and is greatly hurting the community during a very difficult time.  How many teachers and diversity programs could be implemented for that amount of money?!
Go ahead and raise the same funds - but spend them on a good idea like this one in the petition - not a name change that doesn't improve any race issues. The school and Tam District Trustees are now scurrying to cure the violation of the Brown Act we filed against them. They are back tracking and changing their stories. This needs to stop and a better plan needs to be implemented.

**** WE NEED YOUR SUPPORT!  Your contributions will help us in 2 areas: Educating our community about what's really going on, with large print ads in local media sources, and  helping to pay for our legal costs. ****★
The entire community will benefit from your donations. Please share this fundraiser, post it on social media and email or text the link to fellow alumni and  community members who need to know what's happening.  It takes a village and a campaign to make Go Fund Me work - the more you share, the better our chances for raising funds. The more we raise, the more we can accomplish. Thank you!♥

<><>  ALSO - join our Fbook page to stay informed.  Search "No Name Change Drake High." <><>  We appreciate you contributing whatever you can today, no donation is too small. ♥

>>> Please READ ON TO LEARN MORE ABOUT the real Sir Francis Drake >>>

Our state is going through enough hardship with fires and the pandemic, parents have lost jobs, people are stressed and nervous about Covid, and here comes fall and winter with rising numbers of infections. Not a good time to be spending half a million dollars on a name change of a school, with an argument that has no factual basis. It's a small group with loud voices. Fight this with us - because Sir Francis Drake Boulevard is next.
>>> Claiming a man was a slave owner, colonizer, murderer and rapist when there is zero proof, is wrong. These kids were filled with stories, not facts, about Sir Francis Drake,  in an misguided attempt against racism after the George Floyd murder. The country and the world are standing up saying ENOUGH for all the right reasons. We need to get together and come up with real solutions and paths to change how black people are treated in this country.  THIS IDEA TO IMPROVE RACISM BY CHANGING THE NAME OF A SCHOOL,  WHEN THEY HAVE NO FACTS OR ARGUMENTS,  is RIDICULOUS.  Fighting racism is a good fight - but this isn't that.  The wrong guy, wrong name, wrong information, wrong time.
>>> Changing the name of a 70 year old school with a rich history in the county, on a whim of emotion, not reality, is a violation to our community and our history. Proponents say we should just get over the name and enjoy our memories. Who gave them the right to deface our history and tell us it doesn’t matter? It’s a perverted sense of entitlement. Not giving any say or vote to people who built the Community that is Drake High – is painful, arrogant and causes division in one of the most difficult times this country has ever faced.
>>>  A young Francis Drake denounced slavery after going on 2 to 3 voyages lead by his older cousin Sir John Hawkins, who was a slave trader.  Drake hated seeing how the slaves were treated, felt it was vile and evil. He did not continue slave trading. He was commissioned by Queen Elizabeth to plunder riches from Spain in any way possible. This was the job of a Privateer. This was how the world was back then.  He became the first explorer to circumvent the world. It’s well documented he denounced slavery, even freeing slaves when he could and letting runaways hide on his ship. His lifelong best friend was an escaped slave, Diego. Isn’t that a valuable lesson to teach in our schools? A person realizing, he did NOT want to go down the road that so many were taking in those times?
>>> Every piece of history you read will say Drake got along very well with the Miwok Indians during the short time he was here. Why aren't we hearing accusations against Sir Francis Drake from the Miwok Indians?  Because there aren't any.  Yet, we've had young people on these Zoom meetings tell us that he killed Indians up and down the coast of California and wiped out whole populations.  Apparently he colonized the Miwok in the few weeks he was here.  SIMPLY NOT TRUE.  Army and Spanish crusades harmed the indigenous Indians of Marin by taking much of their land and forcing them into labor, building the mission, roughly 300 years after Drake was here. It's disturbing to see these people latch onto the fight for racial equality by making up the narrative they want to have to appear proactive and awake. They are fake. 

>>> They have no real argument or proof to back up what they're saying,  so they call us racists. We are guided by the historical FACTS that have been published by the world's foremost historian on the subject of SFD, England’s  own Dr. John Sugden.  Just as people today listen to scientists as the experts who have devoted their lives to studying infectious diseases, why are we not listening to the “scientists” of History” – the ones who have devoted their lives to study the man and are renowned experts?  It just doesn't make sense but the proponents won't answer this question.
>>> Many of our families came here as immigrants in the early 1900’s to start a new life in this beautiful place named in honor of Chief Marin of the Coast Miwok Tribe. Many of our ancestors worked hard to make productive farms and ranches, build the roads and water systems. They grew the vegetables, raised the cattle, caught the fish and opened small markets.  We've all added our own sweat, spirit and love into this land and community.

Save our personal history!! Keep the name given 70 years ago - Sir Francis Drake High School !! 

Please give what you can if you are passionate about this fight. If this was put to a vote  - we would win.  This is wrong.
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Donations 

  • Maxine Nilsen nilsen
    • $20 
    • 3 yrs
  • STUART WAGNER
    • $25 
    • 3 yrs
  • William R. Abbey
    • $100 
    • 3 yrs
  • Anonymous
    • $50 
    • 3 yrs
  • Timothy Tanzi
    • $20 
    • 3 yrs
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Organizer and beneficiary

Elena Keating
Organizer
Novato, CA
Richard Franceschini
Beneficiary

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