Milk's iconic bullhorn has been in the hands of civil rights leader Cleve Jones.
After being elected to the Board of Supervisors, Milk gave the bullhorn to Jones. He kept it at his home for several years until November 27, 1996.
Soon after, the bullhorn was given to a group of students from Harvey Milk Civil Rights Academy in the Castro District, until it was borrowed for the movie "Milk" and never returned.
"Then the person who donated the bullhorn had decided that he would like to hold on to it," Gentle Blyth from the San Francisco Unified School District said.
Jones told ABC7 from his home in Southern California, "the bullhorn belongs to me, I lent it to the school and I took it back."
Jones added the display case is not a safe place to keep something irreplaceable and meaningful like Milk's bullhorn.
Allan Baird is the teamster who gave the bullhorn to Milk decades ago.
"I don't know what he is going to do, but whatever he does, I feel we did the right thing as far as the community is concerned and that's what is best," he said.
"I certainly understand why he would want it, but I think the reason we at the school want it is just because we teach the kids civil rights, we teach the kids social justice and that bullhorn did represent a call to justice," Harvey Milk Academy parent Heather Bornfeld said.
