Renaming F.W. Ballou High School to Marion Barry, Jr., Senior High School

[Anonymous]

I'm a DC native and a teacher at Ballou. Some of my students asked me about this today. We talked about it in two of my classes. The majority of them didn't want the name to change. Their relatives are graduates of Ballou, so the name means a lot to them.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I'm a DC native and a teacher at Ballou. Some of my students asked me about this today. We talked about it in two of my classes. The majority of them didn't want the name to change. Their relatives are graduates of Ballou, so the name means a lot to them.

This is how Hollywood portrayed “Marion Barry High.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oLf2PusBhFQ

There’s no way that Ballou should want to have anything to do with Marion Barry’s sordid reputation. Renaming the school for Barry is an ego trip pushed by aging Barry cronies who have no connection with the modern Ballou.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

IIRC, Ward 3 voters put Barry over the top in his first race for mayor.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

IIRC, Ward 3 voters put Barry over the top in his first race for mayor.

That was in the early Carter era, and Ward 3 voters regretted profoundly it ever since. They lost their naive white liberal guilt very quickly. By 1994, Barry was getting literally only a handful or two of votes in Ward 3 precincts. See the classic Washington Post column, "In Search of the Barry 8."

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/lifestyle/1994/11/05/in-search-of-the-barry-8/9fa35c61-a3d8-439e-a086-2c9ab970f50b/

[Anonymous]

Seeing how the UDC student center is off schedule and over budget, it does seem fitting. But let's be honest here, Barry was no friend to DCPS. Far from it He thought so much of the schools that he sent his own son to St. Albans.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing how the UDC student center is off schedule and over budget, it does seem fitting. But let's be honest here, Barry was no friend to DCPS. Far from it He thought so much of the schools that he sent his own son to St. Albans.

I had heard that, but it's hard to see bank-vandal "Marion C. Barry" as an Albans man.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

Vincent Orange is the biggest whore in the District of Columbia. I'd be afraid of catching a disease if I got within breathing distance.

Imagine what an impact "Associate Degree from the Marion Barry University" would have on a resume. Why should taxpayers fund a community college that's only going to cripple its own graduates?!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

Vincent Orange is the biggest whore in the District of Columbia. I'd be afraid of catching a disease if I got within breathing distance.

Imagine what an impact "Associate Degree from the Marion Barry University" would have on a resume. Why should taxpayers fund a community college that's only going to cripple its own graduates?!

Vincent Orange-Jumpsuit will go to the pen one of these days. Meanwhile, this former (some would say current) PEPCO lobbyist is also working overtime to grease the Excelon merger.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

Vincent Orange is the biggest whore in the District of Columbia. I'd be afraid of catching a disease if I got within breathing distance.

Imagine what an impact "Associate Degree from the Marion Barry University" would have on a resume. Why should taxpayers fund a community college that's only going to cripple its own graduates?!

I think some people in Ward 8 just have no idea how much of a national joke Marion Barry was (and still is), with DC as the butt of the joke.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Seeing how the UDC student center is off schedule and over budget, it does seem fitting. But let's be honest here, Barry was no friend to DCPS. Far from it He thought so much of the schools that he sent his own son to St. Albans.

Are you sure about that . I believe Christopher Barry attended and graduated from Wilson.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:They also propose naming the new student center at UDC on Connecticut Ave. for Marion Barry. I suppose that's better than renaming UDC itself, as Vincent Orange has proposed, which would really handicap UDC graduates in the job market. Still, it's pretty in-your-face to be naming any facility for Barry WOTP, where he was thoroughly despised as a crooked, incompetent mayor and a racist politician.

Vincent Orange is the biggest whore in the District of Columbia. I'd be afraid of catching a disease if I got within breathing distance.

Imagine what an impact "Associate Degree from the Marion Barry University" would have on a resume. Why should taxpayers fund a community college that's only going to cripple its own graduates?!

But imagine the marketing slogan potential: "Marion Barry University -- Just get over it!" "Study at MBU: Get crackin'!"

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Seeing how the UDC student center is off schedule and over budget, it does seem fitting. But let's be honest here, Barry was no friend to DCPS. Far from it He thought so much of the schools that he sent his own son to St. Albans.

Are you sure about that . I believe Christopher Barry attended and graduated from Wilson.

"Barry also noted that he sent his only child Christopher Barry to D.C. public schools, which Barry says "demonstrates my own commitment" to the public school system.

The younger Barry did attend DCPS' Wilson High, wxcept that's not the whole story. Presented without further comment is a section from Dream City, the excellent Barry biography written by Tom Sherwood and Harry Jaffe, noting the state of disrepair of D.C. schools in the late '80s when Barry was mayor:

Barry always dodged responsibility for the school system, because it is controlled by an elected, independent school board, but he couldn't escape the fact that he reduced the share of the city's budget that went to education. In 1978, one-fourth of the budget went to the schools; in 1988 Barry allocated only 16 percent. The mayor, however, took care of his own. His son, Christopher Barry, attended St. Albans School for Boys, a posh private school in Ward Three, eight miles from his home."

http://www.washingtoncitypaper.com/blogs/looselips/2012/11/16/marion-barrys-selective-memory/

[Anonymous]

All this talk about Barry being a racist, most elected officials are so does it matter if he was a racist or not?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:All this talk about Barry being a racist, most elected officials are so does it matter if he was a racist or not?

Read the title of this thread. We are discussing the possibility of naming a high school after the racist, corrupt, and drug-addicted school budget cutting joke that is Marion Barry.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:All this talk about Barry being a racist, most elected officials are so does it matter if he was a racist or not?

Read the title of this thread. We are discussing the possibility of naming a high school after the racist, corrupt, and drug-addicted school budget cutting joke that is Marion Barry.

Ballou's best known graduate shot himself. Naming the school after Marion Barry would be another self-inflicted wound. Let them call it whatever they want, it really will not matter.