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QuickTake:
Eugene School District 4J has heard concerns about the name of César Chávez Elementary following recent news reports that the labor leader and political activist sexually abused young girls and women. To begin the renaming process, district officials want to hear from staff and families.
Eugene’s César Chávez Elementary’s name will remain — for now.
After last month’s news reports of civil rights leader Chávez’s sexual misconduct, the Eugene School District 4J school board voted Wednesday, April 15, to gather more thoughts from staff and families before deciding whether to initiate the formal process of renaming the elementary school bearing his name.
The board followed the district’s recommendation, presented by 4J Chief of Staff Carmen Xiomara Urbina and César Chávez Elementary Principal Kevin Gordon.
Urbina said while the district acknowledges the urgency behind calls for a name change from community members, she and other district leaders want to be intentional.
“The concern is real, the awareness is clear, but what’s not in place is the level of representation or representative input that is required under our (renaming) policy,” Urbina said.
On March 18, The New York Times reported that Chávez, co-founder of the United Farm Workers, sexually abused two young girls. Chavez’s longtime ally, Dolores Huerta, told the Times that he sexually assaulted her.
The 4J district received 17 messages from the community about the elementary school’s name after the story was published. District leaders gathered a 10-member “preliminary subcommittee” to discuss whether to immediately begin the renaming process or to gather more feedback.
Because of the sensitivity and mixed emotions around the topic, the subcommittee decided the school needed formalized school community feedback before deciding whether to start the renaming process. This will give staff and family more opportunity to speak their minds. More than half of the 17 people who commented were community members, not school families or staff.
Gordon and Urbina acknowledged the complexity of the possible name change. Urbina pointed out the Latino community’s pride in the naming of the school in 2004, saying that her daughter, a fifth grader at the school at the time, spoke at the packed school board meeting when it decided to name the school after Chávez.
“In the César Chávez Elementary community, the community might not know what César Chávez represents,” Urbina said. “So there has to be an educational piece that needs to happen that needs to come with that.”
Urbina did not give a timeline for when feedback would be presented to the board, mentioning that district staff is currently facing budget season.
Board member Maya Rabasa complimented Gordon’s response to the news, as he used the mascot of the school to give students a sense of school pride during a time of uncertainty.
“When things like this happen, your identity, which is tied to school, can feel a little unsteady,” Rabasa said. “I really deeply appreciate that your immediate reaction was to wrap everybody up in the identity of being Cheetahs and seeing that there is more to this shared identity than this name and this person.”
