Reply to New Name for JEB Stuart HS

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Reply to "New Name for JEB Stuart HS - 9/16 Community Vote "

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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]Please, Please, be Peace Valley or just Valley HS.  Please.  The decision on the name change is water under the bridge.  Moving forward, just pick a non-person name and it'll NEVER ever have to be changed again.

PEACE -- that's what this community and this process need right now.

It's time for PEACE!  That could be the rally cry.

Peace Valley Volts
Peace Valley Victors
Peace Valley (Valley)cats
Peace Valley Voyagers or Ventures
Peace Valley Vipers
Peace Valley Pathfinders 
Peace Valley Pintos
Peace Valley Panthers
Peace Valley Pugs
Peace Valley Pythons/Pelicans
Peace Valley Powers
Peace Valley Purple ________

[/quote]

Translation: it's fine to have lots of schools named after white men, but not blacks or Hispanics. That would just be SO divisive.[/quote]

No, it's not that the other names are "divisive".  It's that they aren't utilitarian.... BJ-HS (with the connotation) as well as "Johns" HS (similar connotation).  We already have a "Marshall" HS -- why on earth would a district have 2 HSs with the same name?  Just isn't functional.  I'd actually prefer that the George Marshall HS be re-named for Thurgood, but we don't need to go there.  Marshall is taken.  And Mendez HS -- in theory would be fine, and in other parts of the country where there are more middle and upper middle class Latinos -- would be perfectly lovely.  But, in this area and in that particular neighborhood, any Latino name will have the connotation of lower income/undocumented immigrant HS.  That is not going to have a positive effect on the school or the housing values.  Marketing and branding isn't everything... but it IS something.  And in this situation, I'm afraid that Mendez is too limiting.  That might not be the case if it was a more well-known Latino person (like Soto-Mayor or something that is nationally recognized and has an image of high achieving/highly integrated).  But, we have to deal with reality and the reality is that Mendez has a certain baggage that a location-based-neutral name does not.  Why stamp that HS with a name that says "this is the hispanic HS" when it ALREADY is a lower performing school with 33% ESOL, 67% FARMS and 55% Latino?  Give the school a fighting chance by naming it something that plays well to all comers.[/quote]

You had me until you got to Mendez.  Wow!  So do people assume that a school named JEB Stuart is filled with confederate flag waiving, pick up driving rednecks?  Mr. Mendez's accomplishments were significant in and of themselves, some would say more so than Soto-Mayor's given his willingness to literally put his life on the line fighting for freedom for his fellow human beings. Sorry his military service isn't fancy enough for you.  [/quote]

+1000.  PP is disgusting.[/quote]

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