A committee on changing the name of the Fairfax Learning Center will meet at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 23.
It is another possible name change involving the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools – a committee also has been meeting about changing the mascot of the Arrowhead Middle School Apaches. The Apache name has been the subject of previous complaints by school patrons that the name appropriated a Native American name and was offensive.
The renaming committee will meet today at the Fairfax Learning Center, 2226 N. 85th St., Kansas City, Kansas, in the first room near the main entrance, according to a meeting notice. It is the former White Church Elementary School building.
Edwin Birch, executive director of communications for the Kansas City, Kansas, Public Schools, said the naming committee is meeting on Fairfax today because the center has been moving to the former White Church location, not because of complaints about the name. Originally the Fairfax Learning Center met in the Fairfax area in northeast Kansas City, Kansas. The former Fairfax Elementary School was at 3101 N. 10th St., with a nearby annex.
Another school naming committee recently met at Arrowhead Middle School, where the committee is in the process of choosing a replacement name for the school mascot, the Apaches.
Several alternative names are under consideration for the Arrowhead mascot, but a name has not yet been selected, according to Birch. The committee will narrow the names to three, and come back for community feedback and final approval, he said.
According to Birch, the school naming committee is considering the name change for the Arrowhead mascot because Apaches are not from this area; the name could be offensive to Native American tribes, portraying them as stereotypes or as cartoons not to be taken seriously; and Arrowhead school isn’t currently using the imagery of mascots, so there is the question of why have a mascot if they aren’t using it.
Birch said the alternative mascot names currently under consideration at Arrowhead include:
• Archers
• Badgers
• Bison/Buffalo
• Blue Jays
• Broncos
• Cheetahs
• Cobras
• Falcons
• Grizzlies
• Phoenix
• Raptors
• Sharks
• Sparks
• Vikings
• Wolves
School board members said at a recent board meeting that they are not pursuing a name change for Washington High School at this time, which was another possibility suggested by some patrons last year.
See a story from last year about school name changes at https://wyandotteonline.com/board-considering-whether-some-kck-schools-and-mascots-should-get-new-names/.
A old timer once told me “if you can make yourself better then by all means do so” Will a mascot name change makes things better? Too early to tell. If you want to know something, I spent three years there during the last part of the desegregation process- never once did I feel like an Apache. I was just plain happy glad there was actually an afterlife after finishing six years in the same grade school. If this district can keep good teachers here in the 500 instead of them leaving for greener pastures elsewhere then a mascot name change for Arrowhead shouldn’t matter much. Making kids smarter is the main goal, I’d think.
Of those “alternative names” I can find something offensive. Take for example “Badgers”. Used as a verb it means to harass or annoy persistently (Merriam Webster). Sounds like bullying to mean. A no-no in a school setting. Or how about “Vikings”. Little one knows that slavery was of vital importance to Viking Society. Slaves were 25% of the population. So no matter what the name is changed to I guarantee someone will find it offensive. How about “we are that school over there”. Sounds pretty generic to me.