2 schools named after eugenics advocates to get new names

PALO ALTO, Calif. – School officials in Palo Alto have unanimously voted to rename two middle schools that bear the names of leaders in the eugenics movement.

The Mercury News reports (http://bayareane.ws/2mW71TL) the Palo Alto Unified School District Board of Education voted Friday 5-0 to rename Jordan Middle School, which is named after David Starr Jordan, and Terman Middle School, which is named after Lewis Terman.

Terman was a former Stanford psychologist and Jordan was an accomplished scientist and Stanford’s founding president.

Both were members of the Human Betterment Foundation, a group that believed the human race could be improved through selective reproduction including forced sterilization.

Pressure to change the schools’ names started after a seventh-grade student at Jordan Middle School wrote a book report on Jordan and shared what he had learned about the school’s namesake.

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Information from: The (San Jose, California) Mercury News, http://www.mercurynews.com