A suburban town in Dallas, Texas is in the process of establishing a new school, with a proposed name that does not satisfy the residents.
The school board in the town of Frisco is proposing the name “Lebanon High,” a name picked because the building, currently under construction and set to open next year, sits in the middle of what was once an old farming town called Lebanon, before it was incorporated into modern-day Frisco.
In a publication explaining the name, the school district said “memories of Lebanon may be found throughout Frisco. There's a road and a Baptist church that still bear the name, and there even used to be a Lebanon school, although it closed in 1947.”
However, Frisco resident Robert Mays, is not buying it, as he said that “for a high school name, it doesn't fit this community.”
Another parent, Liffey Skender, stated that "the present-tense name of a country that was in the news all the time with reference of war and battleground was always what was on my mind when I would say the name Lebanon.”
"The word Lebanon still reminds me of all the sad and turmoil that goes on in the Middle East."
According to the Dallas Morning News, Ms Skender suggested "Freedom High" as an alternative - and provided the officials with emails supporting her pick, the school board is sticking with its original choice.
It turns out Lebanon isn't all that uncommon a name for US. There are at least 19 of them dotting the map, from Oregon to Maine.
According to University of California, Santa Cruz Prof Nathaniel Deutsch, there is a history of Middle Eastern named towns in the US - although it sometimes has little to do with the national origins of their founders, like Cairo, Mecca and Medina.