Midland ISD’s school board voted Monday night to change the name of its high school honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee, following suit with decisions made by other school districts across the state.
The board, according to KTSM-TV, voted 6-1 to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School which is located about 330 miles west of Dallas. The board also voted to create a citizen’s committee, made up of students, parents and alumni, which will present recommended name changes to Midland ISD Superintendent Orlando Riddick.
“Voting to change the name was not an effort to erase history; instead remembering history is what caused us to change the name of the school that was so named in 1960 in a misguided attempt to honor such history at that particular time in our history,” Midland ISD school board president Rick Davis said in a statement, per KTSM-TV.
“But this decision was much more than simply righting a past wrong concerning the name of a high school. It was also about moving forward to reflect the character of our remarkable community.”
The committee will present one to three recommendations to the superintendent and to the school board, according to KSTM-TV, and a final decision is expected no later than Oct. 19.
The future of the school’s mascot — the “Rebels” — hasn’t been determined, Davis told The Dallas Morning News Tuesday.
“I think the mascot will be influenced by the name of the school that is ultimately chosen,” Davis wrote in an email. “Consequently, I don’t yet know at this time if it makes any sense to keep ‘Rebels’ as the mascot.”
An online petition to change the name of the high school had more than 10,000 signatures when the school board made its decision. The first sentence of the petition reads, “The time has come for a new era in Midland, TX.”
“Hearing so many people voice their support for change lets me know that the scrutiny of the past two months has been worth it,” Courtney Ratliff, the petition’s organizer, said in a statement to KTSM-TV. “While I know many still cannot understand the impact of a name, I am grateful that this school board does and has taken the right steps towards making Midland the truly inclusive city that it is. This movement was never about me, it was always about the future of our students.”
Other school districts across the state have voted to remove confederate reminders from their namesakes. On July 16, Tyler ISD board members voted unanimously to change the name of high school honoring Lee and John Tyler, a Virginian slave owner who served as the United States’ president from 1841 to 1845 and sided with the Confederacy at the start of the Civil War.
Richland High School recently announced it would no longer use the name “Rebels” as its mascot. Instead, it’s changing to the “Royals,” a change Birdville ISD’s school board approved.
:no_upscale()/cloudfront-us-east-1.images.arcpublishing.com/dmn/WQS4TAUZ25EQLJX23VOGFJ464Y.jpg)
Find more high school sports stories from The Dallas Morning News here.
"board" - Google News
July 29, 2020 at 02:36AM
https://ift.tt/3jSm0LA
Midland ISD board votes to change high school name honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee - The Dallas Morning News
"board" - Google News
https://ift.tt/2KWL1EQ
https://ift.tt/2YrjQdq
Bagikan Berita Ini
0 Response to "Midland ISD board votes to change high school name honoring Confederate general Robert E. Lee - The Dallas Morning News"
Post a Comment