Results tagged “barackobamaelementaryschool”

A little over two weeks after he was inaugurated president, Barack Obama already has a school named after him. Yesterday Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead officially changed its name to Barack Obama Elementary. The students in the school made a push for the name change soon after Obama's victory in a movement the school's superintendent called "a lesson in democracy." Yesterday they held a ceremony to reveal the new sign at what's thought to be the first school named after the new president. Students were hoping that Obama may have made a surprise visit, but understood that the president is busy. Fifth-grader Esta Thomas told Newsday, "Now that the sign is up we are now officially stars in the sky. We are leaders today."

Ludlum Elementary School in Hempstead did not even wait until the inauguration to go ahead and rename themselves Barack Obama Elementary School last night. Like the election of Obama himself, the push to rename the school came in large part from a youth movement--this time of preteens in the largely African-American and Hispanic community. District Superintendent Dr. Joseph Laria praised the students' exuberance saying, "You want to talk about "Yes We Can!"? That was a lesson in democracy." In a very different scene elsewhere on the Island, police have arrested three Shirley men on charges of criminal mischief for the sexual and racist graffiti they left on cars in Mastic last week. Since some of the slurs threatened Obama, the Secret Service is still involved with the investigation of the three men, all in their early twenties.