MySQL Removing Some Foreign keys

I have a table whose primary key is used in several other tables and has several foreign keys to other tables. CREATE TABLE location ( locationID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY ... ) ENGINE = InnoDB; CREATE TABLE assignment ( assignmentID INT NOT NULL AUTO_INCREMENT PRIMARY KEY, locationID INT NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY locationIDX (locationID) REFERENCES location (locationID) ... ) ENGINE = InnoDB; CREATE TABLE assignmentStuff ( ... assignmentID INT NOT NULL, FOREIGN KEY assignmentIDX (assignmentID) REFERENCES assignment (assignmentID) ) ENGINE = InnoDB; The problem is that when I'm trying to drop one of the foreign key columns (ie locationIDX) it gives me an error. > "ERROR 1025 (HY000): Error on rename" How can I drop the column in the assignment table above without getting this error?