School Board Selects Name For New Madison School
School To Be Built In Linden Park Neighborhood
Updated: 10:45 am CDT April 11, 2007
MADISON, Wis. -- The Madison Metropolitan School District's School Board has selected the name for the city's new elementary school, but not everyone's happy with the choice.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportVang Pao Elementary School will be built in the Linden Park neighborhood, which is between Midtown and Valley View Road on Madison's far West Side.The school board unanimously selected the name on Monday night over 40 other possible school names, WISC-TV reported.Some parents whose children will attend the new school are questioning whether it was the best name.One school board member said that many don't know much about Gen. Vang Pao because he led a secret war and it took many years for the U.S. to recognize and honor the sacrifices his people made for this country during the Vietnam War."The reaction may come from a lack of knowledge about who we are as a people," said Shwaw Vang, a Madison School Board member.In Wisconsin, there are 70,000 Hmong veterans and their families. Their revered leader, Gen. Vang Pao, helped bring 350,000 refuges to America following this country's secret war in Laos where the United States enlisted the Hmong to fight alongside U.S. troops.Vang said his father was a lieutenant colonel under Vang Pao. He said naming the new school after him is a historic moment not just for his people but for the U.S. itself."I don't believe there has been a group of people who have sacrificed more for Americans without knowing where it is or who we're fighting for," Vang said.Several years ago, local Hmong people protested a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who in a book Vang Pao to heroin trafficking, which some believed helped fund the secret war."Those are things that people want to read and those are things that sell, but as for the Hmong history, allow the Hmong people to tell it as to the way we lived it, as the way we see it," Shwaw Vang said.Vang said that to the Hmong, Vang Pao is their Martin Luther King Jr."He freed the Hmong people form centuries of oppression. And even after that, being a military leader, he advocated that we all should get along and that we all should live with one another," Shwaw Vang said. "This is a person who has changed the future of a whole race."Vang said that he hopes Vang Pao will be able to make it from his home in California to Madison for the groundbreaking of the school named in his honor.
VIDEO: Watch The ReportVang Pao Elementary School will be built in the Linden Park neighborhood, which is between Midtown and Valley View Road on Madison's far West Side.The school board unanimously selected the name on Monday night over 40 other possible school names, WISC-TV reported.Some parents whose children will attend the new school are questioning whether it was the best name.One school board member said that many don't know much about Gen. Vang Pao because he led a secret war and it took many years for the U.S. to recognize and honor the sacrifices his people made for this country during the Vietnam War."The reaction may come from a lack of knowledge about who we are as a people," said Shwaw Vang, a Madison School Board member.In Wisconsin, there are 70,000 Hmong veterans and their families. Their revered leader, Gen. Vang Pao, helped bring 350,000 refuges to America following this country's secret war in Laos where the United States enlisted the Hmong to fight alongside U.S. troops.Vang said his father was a lieutenant colonel under Vang Pao. He said naming the new school after him is a historic moment not just for his people but for the U.S. itself."I don't believe there has been a group of people who have sacrificed more for Americans without knowing where it is or who we're fighting for," Vang said.Several years ago, local Hmong people protested a University of Wisconsin-Madison professor who in a book Vang Pao to heroin trafficking, which some believed helped fund the secret war."Those are things that people want to read and those are things that sell, but as for the Hmong history, allow the Hmong people to tell it as to the way we lived it, as the way we see it," Shwaw Vang said.Vang said that to the Hmong, Vang Pao is their Martin Luther King Jr."He freed the Hmong people form centuries of oppression. And even after that, being a military leader, he advocated that we all should get along and that we all should live with one another," Shwaw Vang said. "This is a person who has changed the future of a whole race."Vang said that he hopes Vang Pao will be able to make it from his home in California to Madison for the groundbreaking of the school named in his honor. Previous Stories:
Related Links: - April 10, 2007: New Elementary Named After Hmong Military Leader
- March 20, 2007: 41 Names Suggested For New Elementary School
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