Students want school name changed to Barack Obama High

Boulder High School's Student Worker club made headlines with their protest against the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, the club is attempting to change the name of Boulder High School to Barack Obama High School

Boulder High School's Student Worker club made headlines with their protest against the Pledge of Allegiance. Now, the club is attempting to change the name of Boulder High School to Barack Obama High School.

"We initiate this campaign in order to honour the momentous achievement of his election as an African-American, inspire the community with his ideals of unity and hope, and reflect the progressive spirit that is shared by both Barack Obama and our school environment," the Student Worker Club said in a press release.

The group scheduled a press conference to pitch the Obama High plan to coincide with "the 200th anniversary of Abraham Lincoln's birth to commemorate both the role he had in making the election of Barack Obama possible and the social progress that has been made since he issued the emancipation proclamation".

However, Principal Bud Jenkins doesn't anticipate a rush to rename Colorado's oldest established high school, founded in 1875. "There'd be a long and laborious process to change the name of the school, other than somebody just thought: 'Oh, this sounds like a good idea,' " he said.

The Student Worker members "are certainly enthusiastic about a new president and good for them," Jenkins said.

"With all due respect to the president," the principal added, "of all the things in the world that need to be changed, Boulder High School's name is probably way down the list.

"Why not go out and get involved in working at the homeless shelter or Habitat for Humanity or a thousand other things in the community that... are really going to make an impact on the world," Jenkins suggested.

Unusual trend

Experts say this baptising phenomenon at such an early stage is unique for an American leader. "This is highly unusual," said Robert Thompson, a Syracuse University professor of popular culture. "Usually this thing doesn't take place until the president is out of office and often until the president has actually died."

But the "hope for some kind of utopia" during the Democratic Obama administration after eight years of Republican president George W Bush has proven too powerful for some to wait, Thompson and others said.

A longtime social protest group, Student Worker's members made headlines in September 2007 by protesting the school's daily ritual of students voluntarily saying the Pledge of Allegiance when it's broadcast on the intercom. They had argued that the pledge's reference to "one nation, under God" violated the separation of church and state.

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