The city of San Francisco is eyeing to rename dozens of public schools, including the ones named after former President Abraham Lincoln and Senator Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif), according to a report.

The renaming committee has started its presentation with a homage to the Ramaytush Ohlone people. Their homeland is now being occupied by the city of San Francisco, according to a Los Angeles Times report.

The committee then presented the list of schools whose names the group has recommended for approval for particular reasons. These reasons are allegedly in relation to slaveholding, colonization, or oppression. 

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How many schools might be affected? 

There was a total of 42 schools on the list, which is a third of San Francisco's total number of public schools.

Some of the schools' namesakes have much-debated legacies. These included California missionary Father Junipero Serra and "The Star-Spangled Banner" composer Francis Scott Key. Meanwhile, for Lincoln and Feinstein, the reasons were less apparent.

The famous magnet school Lowell High was also included on the list. Its namesake James Russell Lowell was an abolitionist but pictured Black people unfavorably in his writings.

Committee members said that school names should represent the school district's values that included respecting every person equally, as reported by the LA Times.

Member of the naming advisory committee, Mary Travis Allen, said that all the schools' names in San Francisco should reflect admirable people. However, some past graduates of the schools are against changing the names of their alma maters.

City Mayor London Breed was strongly against the timing of the remaining debate. Breed described it as an unwelcome distraction when schools are closed due to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a statement, Breed said that it is offensive to parents who are juggling their children's daily at-home learning activities while doing their own jobs and maintaining their mental health balanced.

"It's offensive to me as someone who went to our public schools, who loves our public schools, and who knows how those years in the classroom are what lifted me out of poverty and into college," Breed noted in a report.

She added that it is also offensive to their kids, who are staring at their screens every day instead of learning and growing with friends. 

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The renaming committee is composed of parents, educators, and community members. The committee was convened by San Francisco Unified School District's board at the start of the year.

The committee presented its recommendations on Nov. 10 to the board. Whether the district will go ahead with the name changes is yet to be known.

The 42 schools have been given a deadline until Dec. 18 to recommend new names, which should be approved by the school board.

"Abraham Lincoln is not seen as much of a hero at all among many American Indian Nations and Native peoples of the United States, as the majority of his policies proved to be detrimental to them," a committee member wrote on a spreadsheet as a summary of reasons for renaming the said schools.