Allan Appel Photo
Reporter Anthony Contreras in the foreground listening to his answer.
The city should have a community conversation about potentially renaming Christopher Columbus Family Academy on Grand Avenue in Fair Haven.
Mayor-Elect Justin Elicker offered that idea Thursday afternoon in response to the first surprise question he fielded since Tuesday’s election by a local reporter — who also happens to be a third-grader at East Rock Community School.
Elicker was holding a press conference with reporters from the now-legendary East Rock Record. Reporters from the school now in its sixth year, regularly interview politicians.
Students peppered Elicker with questions on subjects ranging from vaping (“Don’t do it,” the mayor-elect answered) to what should be done for the homeless. (Focus on long-term housing and not only emergency shelter, he suggested.)
When third-grader Anthony Contreras read his question slowly and carefully from his reporter’s notebook — “Should we change the name of the Christopher Columbus Academy?” —Elicker and the teachers in the room looked a bit surprised. They didn’t see that one coming.
“That’s a hard question,” Elicker said.“Tell me what you know abut Christopher Columbus.”
Various students responded that Columbus had triggered what became a conquest of Native Americans, with many Native Americans hurt and killed.
Elicker mentioned that an alternative Columbus Day is already in place in many municipalities across the country. An Indigenous Peoples Day event took place last month on the Green.
Elicker took it all in, widening the presser into a conversation with the kids.
“Some people say he found America.’ But can you find something if people are already there?” Elicker asked.
Elicker with student reporters.
Elicker’s daughter began attending Christopher Columbus this fall. Most of the students there are Latinx.
A year ago activists marched on the school and unofficially renamed it “Mantowese School,” after a Native American tribal chief. (Read about that here.)
Greater New Haven also has the country’s highest percentage of Italian-Americans.
“I think we should have a community conversation about changing that name,” Elicker concluded. “Like many places that have honored people in the South that were part of the Civil War and supported slavery and things that are not good at all. Those people have had conversations and removed statues.”
Communities benefit from having open dialogue about such controversial questions, so people can base decisions on facts, Elicker argued.
Friday morning he was still thinking about the reporter’s question.
“If it were up to me, I think I would change the name,” Elicker said. “But I think it’s a better approach to have a community conversation.”
Columbus may not have discovered America, but he certainly discovered the best way to get here, thereby making one of the most consequential discoveries in all human history.
And don't give me all that Howard Zinn nonsense. Zinn's chief source for his "history" was Columbus' chief political rival. That's like writing a biography of Hillary Clinton, using only Donald Trump's tweets as reference. Whenever one of Columbus' men did something wrong to the natives Columbus always felt terrible about it. His main goal was to spread Christianity, which I think we can all agree is a better religion than what the Aztecs were doing.
Of course, kids aren't taught about this stuff properly, so I don't blame them for being ignorant.