NINA ROSE ISN’T EXACTLY SURE what to make of her daughter’s high school being named after the once-revered farmworker and civil rights leader Cesar Chavez.
First, there’s a reason the school is named after him, she said. The late labor advocate was revered for organizing hunger strikes and boycotts to secure better wages and working conditions for California farmworkers.
But today, there’s another factor to consider: Where should the line be drawn when it comes to holding a historical figure accountable?
It’s a question that students and parents at Cesar Chavez High School have had to consider recently. Barely a month back from summer break, the Stockton Unified School District asked whether the North Stockton high school should get a new name, given a New York Times investigation back in March that extensively detailed allegations that Chavez groomed and sexually abused and raped young girls and famed United Farm Workers co-founder Dolores Huerta.
In a survey, the school district asked residents to rate how strongly they would support or oppose changing the school’s name — a change that could come at a hefty cost. To change signage, uniforms and other items bearing the school’s name could cost up to $3 million, according to district spokesperson Melinda Meza.
The district has yet to provide a cost breakdown of each expense included in the estimated costs, despite multiple requests from Stocktonia.
“Is it that big of a difference when you want to change the name and spend that money, or keep the name and use the money for something better, something good that will benefit the children?” asked Rose, a nurse, as she finished picking up her daughter, Lyla, a sophomore. “I mean, what difference is it going to make now?”
Students and parents interviewed by Stocktonia during recent after-school visits expressed mixed feelings about a name change. Some were neutral about the idea, as just over 20% were in the district poll. Others, like Rose, saw the money better spent on other needs. According to the district, if the funds aren’t used to rename the school, they could go toward hiring intervention teachers, staff bonuses and even an HVAC system upgrade.
Nearly half of the students said they either “strongly support” or “somewhat support” changing the name, despite the costs. That includes Matias Martinez, who said he likes the abbreviation “CCHS” and would be open to renaming the school “Central California High School.”
But Martinez also suggested the name of his high school was the reason why his clubmate lost a recent competition.
Martinez said it was the first year his academic club, Skills USA, received lower scores than in previous years the school had competed. He thinks it was because judges wanted to avoid naming a school with the name “Cesar Chavez” as the winner.
The 16-year-old junior now worries that the name could follow him after high school.
“It’s needed,” said Martinez of renaming the school. “I don’t want to go to a college and they look at my resume and say that I went to a school with someone’s name on it that isn’t a good person.”
What Martinez wants for his school has already taken place at institutions and public spaces across California. Some localities were quick to remove the Chavez name following the sex abuse allegations.
“I don’t want to go to a college and they look at my resume and say that I went to a school with someone’s name on it that isn’t a good person.”
Matias Martinez, CCHS student
The education board in Yolo County, which is north of Stockton, voted earlier this month to rename its school named for Chavez. It’s currently asking for community input on a new name for its Woodland area school.
At the Los Angeles Unified School District, a decision to drop the name from two of its schools was made just days after the allegations surfaced. The district set aside $209,000 for removing the name from gym floors and entrance signs, LAist reported.
In Stockton, councilmembers opted to cover up the Central Library’s exterior signage with the Chavez name while creating a committee to consider renaming the building. The library, renamed in 1994 in Chavez’s honor, closed earlier this month for a temporary renovation project, leaving its renaming unresolved.
California currently has at least 21 schools named after Chavez, according to the state Department of Education’s directory.
While more students at the Stockton school favored a name change than any other response in the poll, a considerable number described themselves as “neutral,” including Chanthyla Dan, a senior.
“I honestly don’t really care what happens or what they do,” said Dan. “If they feel the need to change it, then they should do that. I’m just so used to ‘CCHS,’ so having it be something different, it’s gonna be pretty hard for me to remember.”
But the price — which could be at least $2 million, according to the district, if the initials of the school stayed the same — weighs on Dan. When asked what the money could go toward instead, Dan said more music stands and instruments are needed in her band classroom. Plus, some classrooms don’t have air conditioning or lights that work, she said.
If money weren’t an issue, Dan and some of her bandmates said on a recent afternoon, they wouldn’t mind if the school were renamed after their former band teacher, Arthur “Art” Coleman, a longtime music instructor at Chavez High who retired just last year.
“If the school was renamed to him, he would know how much he really means to us and how he means to the school,” said Dan’s friend, sophomore Leslie Rangel, after hearing the suggestion.
Still, it would be “weird not being known as a CCHS kid,” said Rangel. The Chavez name and initials have been tied to the school since it opened in 2005.
SUSD trustees undecided
Last Tuesday, after Superintendent Michelle Rodriguez presented the district poll results, SUSD trustees decided to put off any action related to the school’s name, suggesting more community dialogue is needed.
But they still weighed in on whether to rename the school — the first time most trustees publicly commented on the issue since the allegations against the school’s namesake surfaced.
Area 2 Trustee Patrick Martin brought up the fact that other SUSD schools carry names some see as controversial, including those named after early American presidents who enslaved people.
“If we’re comfortable naming schools after people who enslaved other people … then that should be taken into consideration if we’re saying that things need to be compatible with the values a public school should represent to its students,” Area 4 Trustee Shauna Priest remarked following Martin’s comment.
Kennetha Stevens, who represents schools in Area 7, suggested waiting until Chavez was “convicted of the alleged crimes” before they moved forward. Martin expressed a similar view, calling for the district to spend the millions in funds elsewhere until “the real facts” are known and a “case is completed. ”
Chavez, who died in 1993, cannot face criminal charges over the allegations because he is deceased. However, survivors of the alleged sexual abuse could pursue civil claims against the United Farm Workers union, co-founded by Chavez, if they can establish that the organization knew or should have known about the alleged abuse, the Times reported.
Meza said by email that trustees know Chavez is no longer living and that “convicted” was used mistakenly.
Sofia Colón, who represents Area 6, which includes Chavez High, said the discussion has given the community and trustees a chance to express their views about an issue that has no obvious answer.
“We’re saying things we haven’t really said before,” she said. “And we asked the community for their input, and it is divided.”
This story originally appeared in Stocktonia.