Just yesterday, the former Alliance College Ready Middle School #9 was renamed for Kory Hunter, a tireless volunteer and fundraiser for educational programs who died of brain cancer in 2013.

For dozens of well-known people, there’s an LA Unified school named in their honor, even in one case, where the honoree has a controversial past, David Wark Griffith Middle School: There’s a movement to change the name because of the director’s insensitive film “Birth of a Nation,” which canonized the Ku Klux Klan.

So what’s in a (school) name? LA School Report decided to take a closer look at the district’s 1,274 schools.

There are plenty of schools named for what some might regard as politically incorrect or for undeserving reasons, such as schools named for religious leaders (Hillery T. Broadous), military leaders (Gaspar de Portolá i Rovira), gays (Walt Whitman), lesbians (Jane Addams), bisexuals (Frida Kahlo), Democrats (Pat Brown), Republicans (Henry Tifft Gage), even a Whig (Horace Mann).

But, most are pretty benign atttributions, with names of famous local and historic figures.

Here are some overall observations:

• About 58 percent of the schools are named after the streets they’re located on or the school’s neighborhood.
• About 5 percent of schools have numbers or street-named numbers in their title.
• 16 U.S. presidents have schools named after them, including the current occupant of the White House, Barack Obama.
• There’s a school name for every letter in the alphabet except for Z. (Yes, there’s Xinaxcalmecac Academia Semillas Del Pueblo.)
• Many schools are named after poets, civil rights leaders and inventors. Some are named after former school board members and local community activists.

A school generally gets a specific name after the community requests it and brings it to the school board member of that district. Then, it’s discussed and voted on by the full board.

For example, the school at 1963 E. 103rd St. existed a quarter of a century before Florence Griffith Joyner was born in 1959. After she became “the fastest woman in the world” and won Olympic medals she got a school named after her. Now, nitpickers could complain that her legacy has been tainted by allegations of drug use, but so far no one has asked that her name be removed from the school.

There are a number of husbands and wives who have schools named after them. Andres & Maria Cardenas Elementary in Van Nuys was named for a couple who raised 11 children in Pacoima — he was a laborer and then established his own successful business. Other couples have separate schools.

Twenty-six miles separate Michelle Obama Elementary School in Panorama City and Barack Obama Global Preparation Academy on 46th Street in Los Angeles. It’s only nine miles between Thomas Bradley Global Awareness Magnet, named for the former Los Angeles mayor, and the Ethel Bradley Early Education Center, a school named for his wife.

It’s only four miles between Diego Rivera Learning Complex Communication & Technology School and Frida Kahlo Continuation High, schools named for two of Mexico’s most renowned artists, who were married. Sal Castro was a pain for LA Unified, leading a mass walkout and protests against the board a few times in the 1960s, but he got Sal Castro Middle School named after him. His walkouts ultimately changed the district.

Presidents with schools named after them are: George Washington, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, James Monroe, James Buchanan, James Garfield, Abraham Lincoln, Ulysses S. Grant, Grover Cleveland, Theodore Roosevelt, William Howard Taft, Woodrow Wilson, John F. Kennedy, William Jefferson Clinton and Barack Obama.

Clinton’s vice president is honored with the Rachel Carson-Al Gore Academy of Environmental Sciences, but there was some controversy when it opened because of toxic soil where it was being built. Many pointed out the irony of naming it after two people famous for being environmental activists.

There’s a school named for lawyer Johnnie Cochran, who defended O.J. Simpson on murder charges and Michael Jackson on child molestation charges. (Simpson and Jackson have no schools named after them.) And, there’s the Sonia Sotomayor Learning Academy, named for the U.S. Supreme Court Justice, and the Dr. Maya Angelou Community High School, which honors the late poet, who died last year.

Many schools are named for authors, raising serious questions: Are there wild things at Maurice Sendak school? Is there treasure at Robert Louis Stevenson school? Do they paint the fence white at Mark Twain? Are the students falling alseep at Washington Irving Middle School, which is named for the author of “Rip Van Winkle” and “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow.”

Some schools are named for lesser-known people. Juanita Tate, for example, advocated for green space in south LA. Hubert Howe Bancroft was an abolitionist, whose family home was part of the Underground Railroad. Phillis Wheatley was the first black published poet. David Starr Jordan studied fish, William Antón became the district’s first Latino superintendent, and Jaime Escalante, had a movie, “Stand and Deliver,” made about his teaching style.

Other schools are named for union activists and union busters. Helen Bernstein was a teachers union president, and Bert Corona was a labor leader, but Andrew Carnegie was known for breaking labor strikes.

Aviatrix Amelia Earhart, who disappeared after her final flight, has a school named after her as well as airplane pioneer Orville Wright. And, there’s a school named for a lesser-known aviation pioneer, Glenn Hammond Curtiss, who was sued by the Wright Brothers for patent violation.

There are schools named for people who may be mistaken for their true accomplishments. Don’t let the middle schoolers say that George Washington Carver invented peanut butter, because he didn’t, and Thomas A. Edison did not invent the light bulb. Nor did Albert Einstein fail math, despite the legend. And, certainly the middle schoolers at Christopher Columbus can tell you that he did not, in fact, discover America.

It turns out that board member Monica Garcia is familiar with questions over the D.W. Griffith school — it’s in her district — and after some community discussion it may soon go to the full school board for a name change.

Anyone can find fault with some of the names of the schools at LAUSD, but the real question is: Do the 4th graders at South Park Elementary School really know how cool they are?

Movie poster of ‘The Birth of a Nation.”

As the Confederate flag came down from the South Carolina State Capitol today, LAUSD teacher Jose Lara continued to drum up support for a petition to change the name of the David Wark Griffith Middle School because the director’s film “The Birth of a Nation” is racist, according to Lara.

“I have been extremely pleased with the way the word has gotten out, people are really angry,” Lara told the LA School Report. He hit the goal of 200 signatures in less than two days and now is shooting for 500 petition signers. “The school board knows about it by now.”

The next step, Lara said, is to take the petition to District 2 board member  Mónica García, who represents the east Los Angeles school. For a change to occur, a majority of the seven board members would have to approve a resolution. As of today, Garcia has said nothing publicly about the situation nor did her office return messages, seeking comment. Further, none of the public officials or state legislators who have the school in their district responded to requests for comment.

Lara said he was thrilled about a bill being proposed at the state level that would ban state and local properties after Confederate leaders. Two schools named after Robert E. Lee would have their names changed within two years.

“That doesn’t affect D.W. Griffith school, which is named after a racist,” Lara said.

Griffith’s 1915 Civil War epic, which was based on a book called “The Clansman,” was protested as racist at the time of its release.

“It’s 2015, and children shouldn’t to a school named after someone who spread this racist propaganda,” Lara said. “It’s a place for education. To have a name like this on a school in this community is a contradiction.”

Reyna Hernandez wrote on the petition site: “The children, families and community at Griffith Middle school desire a school to be proud of. A school free of racism.”

Former student Rita Diaz signed the petition even though she now lives in Wentzville, Mo. She wrote, “We have known about the racist director since we attended this school, however we never had a voice. This is the opportunity to correct their mistakes and give our students something worthy to represent and be a part of.”

Many of the school alumni who are signing the petition thought the school was named after Col. Griffith Jenkins Griffith, for whom L.A.’s largest park and observatory are named. That Griffith, although a philanthropist to the city, wasn’t a very nice guy and had a reputation of a raging alcoholic. He was convicted of shooting his wife in the eye.

“It doesn’t take much research to find out about D.W. Griffith,” said Lara, “and as a teacher I have a hard time seeing this as a school that honors this man.”

D.W. Griffith also directed a film about prejudice called “Intolerance” a year later in part as response to the negative criticism of “The Birth of Nation” and how it glorified the Ku Klux Klan.

The school was named in 1939, while Griffith was still alive. He died in 1948. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 6535 Hollywood Blvd. In 1999, the Director’s Guild stripped him of his Lifetime Achievement Award, and Griffith has been commemorated on a U.S. postage stamp.

At the time the school took his name, the neighborhood in East Los Angeles was predominantly Jewish and Asian. Some of the Buddhist temples from the era still stand. Now, the neighborhood is predominantly Latino, and the school population is 98 percent Hispanic.

Where do the name changes stop? Communities around the country are now debating whether schools named after such people as Thomas Jefferson, the third U.S. president, should have their names changed because their namesakes owned slaves. (There is a Thomas Jefferson High School in Los Angeles.)

“I haven’t yet weighed in on the Jefferson school yet, we have to take it on a case by case basis,” said Lara. “It depends on the diversity and sensitivity of the community.”

A scene from “The Birth of a Nation”

A petition inspired by UTLA social justice activist Jose Lara is calling for the immediate removal of the name D.W. Griffith from an East Los Angeles middle school because his 1915 film, “The Birth of a Nation,” celebrated the Ku Klux Klan.

The demand follows nationwide calls for the removal of Confederate flags from public spaces in the aftermath of the June 17 shootings of nine people in a Charleston, S.C. church by a suspect who said he was motivated by racism.

“After a Klansman murdered nine people in South Carolina, this should be a no brainer,” Marian Sunde wrote when she signed the petition. “Don’t stall, study the question, worry about backlash, just do the obvious, correct thing.”

David Wark Griffith Middle School, at 4765 E. 4th St., has 1,400 students 6th through 8th grade. One percent of the students are white, one percent are black, and 98 percent are Hispanic. It is in Mónica García‘s District 2. The school opened in 1939.

Lara was recently named the 2015 Social Justice Activist of the Year by the National Education Association (NEA). He said the idea for a petition came after he read an NPR story about Griffith’s film, which made Klansmen look like heroes.

The three-hour film starts with the scroll: “This is an historical presentation of the Civil War and Reconstruction Period, and is not meant to reflect on any race or people of today.” The film was originally called “The Clansman” and is based on a book that glorified the KKK.

Some of the black characters were played by white men in black face, and the film ends with Klansmen riding in to save the South from black rule during Reconstruction.

At the time of its release, it was considered racist propaganda and there were widespread protests. The KKK used the film as a recruiting tool. Dick Lehr, author of “The Birth of a Nation: How a Legendary Filmmaker and a Crusading Editor Reignited America’s Civil War,” writes, “[Griffith] portrayed the emancipated slaves as heathens, as unworthy of being free, as uncivilized, as primarily concerned with passing laws so they could marry white women and prey on them.”

“Our kids should not go attend a school named after someone who glorified the KKK,” wrote Leopoldo Urias who signed the petition.

Gabriel Cabrera added, “It is absurd that we have come this far with civil rights and we still have to attend a school that is named after someone responsible for mass killings of minority communities.”

A history teacher from Downey, Silvio Vidal, wrote, “As a history teacher, the rise of the KKK is part of the content I’m required to teach. How can a school bear the name of a man who made a racist movie glorifying the KKK?”

A few former students who signed the petition said they knew nothing of the significance of Griffith’s name. Brenda Mejia said, “I attended this middle school and was unaware of the history behind David Wark Griffith up until now and do not support his film.”

Marcela Chagoya, of Monterey Park, wrote, “I am signing this petition because it’s crucial that our future leaders, the children of today, learn that the past is meant to be learned from and used as a stepping stone to CHANGE the present and future of our society. The past is not meant to be perpetuated or idolized, especially when it promotes discrimination and hate based on ethnic differences!”

Lara said he planned to present the petition to the school board after he collected more than 200 signatures. He almost reached that goal in less than 24 hours.

“Please help us gain more traction and educate the public on the truth about D.W. Griffith and his film ‘Birth of Nation,’” Lara wrote. “You might as well have a confederate flag flying outside of the school!”