FRISCO, Texas — Before it was renamed "Lebanon Trail High School" on Monday night, the school currently under construction at Ohio Drive and Lebanon Road was known as "High School No. 9."
But the new name does not sit well with some parents who are fighting a perception they don't like the unintended link to the Middle East.
"It has nothing to do with some racial, societal or cultural difference at all," said one parent at Monday's Frisco Independent School District board meeting.
But ask Vicki Day with the Collin County Historical Society and Museum and she will tell you that "Lebanon" is the perfect name.
"The way I look at it, it is paying homage to Texas history," she said. "I think it's a wonderful thing for them to do."
Day took us back to Lebanon's roots, back when it was a small town south of Frisco that was actually founded 50 years earlier.
"There was real history here, and they were real people that lived in Lebanon, Texas," Day said, pointing to a picture of the Clark family. Day said it was a town with 40 families by the 1890s, and the home of a sizable school for the times.
Lebanon was a town that would later be eaten up by a growing Frisco; a Frisco now seemingly bursting at the seams.
"We always thought that we would have the commonality of the American identity and ideology," said one parent fighting for the name change.
Parents argued that other Frisco school names are in the same vein as "Liberty," "Independence" and "Heritage."
"The name that was floated around to all those guys over there is 'Freedom,'" said one parent.
The parents said they are fighting for a voice and fighting for a name that truly represented them. One parent said they understood the history behind the Lebanon name, but added: "It didn't feel like we were a part of Frisco."
Day says the name "Lebanon Trail" perfectly represents what this place once was.
"This is really a Texas story, and this is something people need to learn about," she said.
