Fresno students of color say they feel ‘unwelcomed’ in Central school name-change debate
Just over 60% of Fresno residents polled in a recent Central Unified study said they opposed removing the name of former President James K. Polk from a local elementary school.
The poll results come nearly a year after a Central student sparked debate over Polk’s ugly, racist history and called for Polk Elementary School to be renamed.
But while the district’s committee investigating potential name changes was formed specifically to gather community input, at least some Central Unified students have said they felt cut out of the process and unwanted at committee meetings.
“I am always going to remember how unwelcomed I felt,” Justin Garza High School sophomore Jasmine Kaur said during public comments at the May 10 Central Unified school board meeting. “A lot of the students at my school feel the names of our schools and mascots should be ones that we can celebrate.”
But, Kaur said, “that voice didn’t come out” when she and other students attended a May 9 committee meeting.
In a recent interview with The Bee’s Education Lab, Superintendent Ketti Davis s said she felt saddened and frustrated to learn that Kaur, two other students, and one alumnus felt unheard and uncomfortable. Moving forward, she said, the administration wants to ensure there are safe, welcoming spaces for opposing views on issues.
“It’s important that students, parents, and the community have an equal level of access and comfort to share their input,” she said. “We all matter in the solution.”
Davis also praised the district’s students, especially those who have participated in the ongoing process so far.
“They are honest, they are thoughtful, and they come with solutions, often solutions that are more practical and realistic than we were thinking of to start,” Davis said.
But this isn’t the first time critics of the Polk name have criticized the process, saying they felt marginalized and unwelcome.
Malachi Suarez, the student whose school project helped launch the debate around Polk Elementary, has faced antagonism, bullying, and verbal harassment, according to his father, Gabriel Suarez.
Community cares about this issue, super says
Davis has reminded the community to be kind and respectful of differing views regardless of their stance on the issue but critics say that hasn’t happened after meetings end.
Lifelong Fresno resident and Central West 2016 graduate Harman Singh attended the last input session.
Singh said his support for changing the school’s name was unwelcome at a recent committee meeting, where he said most people supported keeping Polk’s name on the school.
The committee adopted civility rules for the meetings, which they dubbed “norms,” that included respecting the views of others, assuming positive intentions of others and sharing views in a respectful and civil way.
Those norms were used during meetings, Davis said. It was after the meeting when Singh said negative and racist comments were directed at him, including “go back to your country.”
Suarez blamed such incidents on the school district, saying leaders haven’t done enough to include Polk critics in the conversation.
Davis, who was the acting superintendent from July 2021 until her May appointment, said she has been impressed by the time the community has put into participating and engaging in the process.
People on both sides of the issue have been researching at the local library, talking to historians or reviewing the resources the district has shared.
People are using the opportunity to educate one another about both sides of the topic, she said.
“Everyone benefits from that,” she said.
Central Unified committee identifies seven schools with potential issues
Discussion about the pros and cons of maintaining or changing a school name or mascot have taken place among the committee of volunteers since last year.
The following is a timeline from Malachi’s presentation until now.
July 2021: Malachi made his presentation to the school board about Polk being a slave owner, against the abolishment of slavery and a vocal supporter of Manifest Destiny which was considered a God-given right to occupy North American territories
He demanded the board change the name to someone who promoted inclusivity and for a vote by the next board meeting.
Central Unified School Board voted to appoint a committee to study the appropriateness of school names and mascots.
Dec. 7, 2021: Appointed parents/guardians, students and community members named to the committee met for the first time for orientation.
The committee developed criteria to review names, including a person’s background, community involvement, impact on students and a commitment to education, social justice or change, then identified school sites and mascots that may need changing in subsequent meetings.
The committee then hosted four in-person community engagement sessions on April 26 and 28 and May 4 and 9.
The meetings have been open to the public and to public comments.
And the community input sessions were an intentional and integral part in ensuring the community was heard, Davis said.
Singh acknowledged vocal community members who feel attached to school names and the past, but also said it was important to acknowledge current students – ones who don’t feel heard – wanting to “celebrate the shared values that bring them together.”
“Schools should not indoctrinate children with praise of white supremacists and white supremacist idealogy,” Suarez said.
Polk’s name celebrates the destruction and enslavement of people of color, creating an unwelcoming environment for students of color, Suarez said.
“School should encourage people,” he said. “It’s not just for my children but for 85% of the student population that are of color and for all the students to understand that there are better role models we can celebrate.”
Many people, such as Suarez, support a change because schools shouldn’t be named after someone who oppressed a group of people, who are racist or white supremacist and because schools should be welcoming to its students.
People who want to maintain a school name often argue that students learn about the good and bad of the person the school is named after, including Polk, and that a name change erases or rewrites history.
Each of those views has been shared in subcommittee comments from committee members and survey comments from the community.
Evaluating the cost of a name change — another argument for keeping names — could be a goal of the committee if the board votes for one, according to reports about the meeting that determined a committee would be formed.
Suarez says the district failed to communicate the amount of and method for funds being used to change and maintain a new school name.
District spokesperson Gilbert Magallon told the Ed Lab on Tuesday evening the estimated cost of renaming Polk and various other school sites were under review. He said multiple community members have asked the district about that, and it’s an ongoing discussion.
Of Central Unified’s 25 schools:
Seven were identified as possibly needing a change
Those include Houghton-Kearney K-8 School, Norman Liddell Elementary School, Madison Elementary, McKinley Elementary, James K. Polk Elementary, Roosevelt Elementary, Teague Elementary
Over time, the committee came to a consensus to add and remove some
Twelve schools were named after people — nine locals to Fresno County. That number doesn’t include the education and transportation centers also named after locals.
Five school names have some known controversy surrounding it, including Houghton-Kearney, Madison, McKinley, Polk and Roosevelt
Ten schools were named prior to 1982 when there were no documented meeting minutes
One school educates its students on its name
Two school’s mascots, the Madison Warrior and the Polk Pioneer, were identified as possibly needing to be changed
The origin of 11 mascots is known with 10 being chosen by students, staff or stakeholders and one based on school history
The committee’s May 17 meeting and upcoming June 2 meeting will allow members to evaluate the input it gained and establish a consensus for its June recommendation to the board.
The community input survey, which was posted on the district’s site, found that:
In the nine questions asking if the name should remain for the seven schools and if the mascot should remain for the two selected schools, most said “yes” it should stay the same.
Each question had more than 1,200 responses, ranging from 1,237 to 1,264 with more than 146 people skipping each question.
Polk’s survey results include the smallest gap between keeping or changing the name
70.09% say keep Houghton-Kearney’s name
84.55% are for keeping Norman Liddell’s name
75.08% say keep Madison’s name
65.13% are for keeping Madison’s mascot
75.59% say keep McKinley’s name
61.24% are for keeping Polk’s name
69.78% say keep Polk’s mascot
74.04% are for keeping Roosevelt’s name
84.9% say keep Teague’s name
View the survey comments here.
What’s next?
Suarez said he feels that the committee and the yearlong wait was designed as a barrier to a name change and has silenced voices, including those who’ve come to the input sessions.
Like parents who tore down his son’s poster about James K. Polk but are on the committee, he said.
“I have zero confidence that they want to do what’s right,” Suarez said
The subcommittee will meet on June 2 to continue reviewing the input from the four in-person sessions with the community and the survey results from Central Unified stakeholders.
The committee will recommend action for the board in June, more than a year after Malachi presented his project and asked for board action for a change.
“Now the next steps will be hard,” Davis said.
That hard decision will be an important one for years to come, Singh told the school board.
“The board will be in a difficult but important position,” he said. “You have a legacy to honor, but the most important job of the school board is for the students of today and for the students of the future.”
The Education Lab is a local journalism initiative that highlights education issues critical to the advancement of the San Joaquin Valley. It is funded by donors. Learn about The Bee’s Education Lab at its website.
This story was originally published May 25, 2022 at 7:00 AM.
