When a school suddenly loses its name, what should the new one represent? At the Long Beach campus formerly known as César Chavez Elementary, students and parents had a clear-eyed answer: It should represent them.
Long Beach Unified is kicking off an official renaming process for the school, and at Thursday’s back-to-school night families came ready with their suggestions.
Sea Lion Elementary (a nod to the school’s mascot) and Long Beach Elementary have proven popular choices among students, according to one Chavez teacher.
Many suggestions from parents converged around themes of unity, community and place. Dimarrie Price, who has three daughters at Chavez, suggested “Third Street Elementary” while Elicia Duran, whose daughter is in second grade, suggested “Golden Elementary,” each inspired by the streets bordering the school.
Other parents said they hoped a new name could emphasize inclusion and togetherness. Johanna O. suggested Our School, and S. Kennedy — who asked not to have their full names printed — proposed The Family School. “It’s important to unify people by utilizing words that connect people,” Kennedy said.
Long Beach Unified removed the school’s original name after revelations surfaced in March that Chavez had sexually abused girls and women. Since then, the school community has been using makeshift monikers and DIY-ing their school spirit wear to avoid invoking the labor activist.
“We just say ‘school,’” said Chavez parent Natalia Bermudez, an approach other parents said they’ve adopted in the vacuum of a new name. At back-to-school night, Laura Martinez sported a T-shirt adorned with patches that obscured Chavez’s name. New apparel featuring Sea Lion Scholars was also available.
Calls for LBUSD to adopt a new name have mounted as other schools, parks and monuments named for the political activist have had their names taken down. In the last six months, the district has removed murals depicting Chavez, unveiled new art and removed signs with the school’s name, priming the campus and community for a new identity.
In the meantime, parents have been talking to their kids about the upcoming change, attempting to tailor the message to young children.
Martinez’s daughter, a current Chavez student, heard about her school in the news, prompting Martinez to explain the situation. “There’s people in this world that do good things that are for good causes, but do bad things to people,” she said she told her daughter. “Just because they’ve done something right doesn’t make them a good person inside.”
Some Chavez parents explained that once more information had surfaced, they could no longer honor Chavez as they had previously – and that they had a responsibility to course correct. “We find out things and we do our best to correct what we can control,” Elicia Duran said she told her second grader.
Now, the school community is being invited into the district’s process, and on Thursday, students and parents began submitting their suggestions
Though the district nomination form says that proposed names may fall into one of three categories — place, idea or person — one parent shied away from selecting a person’s name in case negative information comes to light in the future, she said.
She said she wished the renaming process had occurred over the summer. Now, she said she hopes the process is completed by the end of the school year so that her fifth-grade daughter’s promotion certificate will say “anything but Chavez.”
Proposed school names will be accepted through Friday, Sept. 25, and students, families, staff and members of the school community can submit names through an online Google form, at a community meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23, or in the Chavez front office, according to a letter from the school’s principal, Brenda Ocampo, to the Chavez community.
After that, the submissions will be reviewed and narrowed by an advisory committee, including parent representatives and Lucy Salazar, the director of engagement for LBUSD. On November 4, “a recommended school name will be brought forward for consideration by the LBUSD Board of Education,” according to another letter from Ocampo.
“It’s been healing for us,” Ocampo said of the renaming process.