Should the Arrowhead Middle School Apaches get a new name?
What about Washington High School, named after the nation’s first President, George Washington, who owned slaves?
Or Lindbergh Elementary, named after Charles Lindbergh, the famous aviator who was thought to be a Nazi sympathizer? Or Frances Willard Elementary, named for a suffragist who may not have always supported the right of African-American women to vote?
During the past year, the school board has heard comments about some of these schools from patrons who wanted to change their names.
On Tuesday night, the Kansas City, Kansas, Board of Education unanimously appointed a committee to review name and mascot requests and make a recommendation to the board. The committee will decide if the names or mascots are offensive to others.
During discussion Tuesday night, board members said the committee might appoint subcommittees to discuss each school being reviewed individually. Each school where a change is considered almost needs its own committee because of the amount of work involved, board member Wanda Paige said.
At Tuesday night’s meeting, district officials did not mention any names of schools where a change might be in the works. Instead, they said a list of schools would be emailed later to school board members.
However, one community request was read in a letter at the July 21, 2020, school board meeting.
Amiel Green II suggested changing the name of Washington High School, which he attended, to Michelle Obama High School. His reason was that George Washington owned slaves. (See story at
https://wyandotteonline.com/should-washington-high-school-change-its-name-to-michelle-obama-high-school/.)
At the time, the idea of changing Washington High School’s name met with a lot of comments online against it.
School board members said at that time they had received requests to change other school names as well, such as Lindbergh Elementary and Willard Elementary.
See earlier story at https://wyandotteonline.com/should-washington-high-school-change-its-name-to-michelle-obama-high-school/.
OMG this is ridiculous leave the names and mascots of schools alone. Get over it and deal with it for those who are offended. Can’t change history only learn from it. It must be the snowflakes screaming about it. I’m ashamed and disappointed in the USD 500 school board for even considering this change. There are more pressing issues than this.
EXACTLY
Monuments to bigots and racism are coming down all over. “Get over it and deal with it for those who are offended”… Works both ways right?
My opinion is that “Apaches” will be the last to go. I’m thinking that particular name stood for all who learned,flunked or taught there.
“The committee will decide if the names or mascots are offensive to others.”
How about leaving that to the citizens of the respective school boards to decide.
Tired of these partisan, activist hacks determining what is right or wrong whether the citizens agree with them or not. Time for all this PC stuff to end. People need to get a life.