The Williamsburg-James City County School Board has tabled talks on renaming James Blair Middle School, but some board members say they hoped the issue would continue to encourage conversation.
Tuesday’s decision to table came several months after a grassroots group called the school’s name into question, ӽ紫ý out that Blair, a Scottish minister who founded William & Mary, was an enslaver who also advocated for slavery. The school board initially agreed to explore the possibility of renaming the school, leading to the formation of a committee tasked with surveying the public and then coming up with alternative names.
Even though the survey, released last month, showed that more than half of survey respondents opposed a name change, the school board still wanted to hear possible alternatives. Those alternatives, presented Tuesday, included Integrity Middle School, Kiskiack Middle School, Longhill Middle School, Powhatan Creek Middle School and Willow Oak Middle School.
The call for name suggestions drew 397 participants, which included current James Blair Middle School students, staff, parents and guardians, school attendance zone parents and guardians, and the general public.
Board member Andrea Donnor said the committee spent time on learning who Blair was, noting that many community members “didn’t know who he was.” She also discussed the community and students being proud to be James Blair Spiders and the positive memories they created around the school.
“I think many things can be true,” Donnor said. “That can be true, and you can also have a name that causes harm. The opportunity to, kind of, reverse what a board did 70 years ago in picking that name gives us the opportunity as a board to consider righting that wrong.”
Board member Daniel Cavazos, however, said it was “imperative” that the board follow the community’s sentiment to not rename the school. Fifty-three percent of the 1,724 people who responded to the survey about whether the school should be renamed said no. Thirty-seven percent said yes while 10% said they were undecided.
“It was my opinion that the community had spoken and they are the ones who live with the name, and we asked them what they wanted, and that’s what they said,” Cavazos said.
Cavazos questioned who makes that decision about righting a wrong.
“I think it’s a bit brave to say that we are here to right a wrong,” he said. “It was a decision that was made, and made in good faith.”
While board member Amy Chen said the decision to rename is “not ours alone,” she expressed her hope for more community interest and continued conversations on the issue. Board member Kimberley Hundley suggested lining up photos in the school to honor the students who graduated from the school in 1969, when it was a high school, as the first integrated class.
“We want to honor that Class of 1969 that had to endure what they endured so that we can progress,” Hundley said. “And we are progressing in the city of Williamsburg. There’s lots of wonderful things going on.”
In the end, only Donnor and board member Randy Riffle wanted to continue with the renaming process and take action at the board’s next ӽ紫ý, so the issue was tabled.
Mary Lassiter, a member of the Campaign for Honorable and Inclusive School Names, wrote a letter to the board expressing her disappointment about its inaction. As a member of the school’s Class of 1969, she noted her support to rename the school was not “to right what we went through.”
“The school board doesn’t owe us seniors anything, but you do owe the students the dignity of having a school name that is not offensive,” Lassiter wrote. “You owe them not to be kept in a state of blissful ignorance.”
James W. Robinson, 757-799-0621, james.robinson@virginiamedia.com
