Here’s the proposed new name for Wilson High School in Tacoma
Woodrow Wilson High School in Tacoma is one step closer to getting a new name.
Tacoma Public Schools Superintendent Carla Santorno shared her recommendation to the school board Thursday evening.
Wilson should be renamed Dolores Silas High School, Santorno said.
“I think Dr. Silas is an outstanding local woman with roots in Tacoma, community and in the Tacoma Public Schools,” she said.
Santorno recommended an implementation date of July 2021. The name change isn’t official until the district’s Board of Directors votes to approve the change within the next few weeks.
If Santorno’s recommendation is approved, she anticipates the transition will take 18 months. The school’s mascot — Rams — and colors — red, white and blue — would remain the same.
Santorno estimated the cost of the name change would be at least $400,000, for changes like building exterior, interior and uniforms.
Silas, now in her 90s, was the first Black woman to serve as an administrator for Tacoma Public Schools after becoming principal of DeLong Elementary. She also became the first Black woman to serve on Tacoma City Council in 1991.
Silas also served as the President of the Tacoma NAACP, elected in 1978, and was recognized by the city of Tacoma with a Lifetime Service Award in 2019.
The board expressed support for the name change on Thursday.
“Racism, oppression, the coddling of racists, will have no place in our schools,” board director Korey Strozier said.
“Wilson is a great high school,” Strozier added. “People who went to Wilson are great people — that’s not going to change with the name change of the building.”
Wilson High principal Bernadette Ray took on the task of changing the school’s name after Wilson alumni sent letters to her last spring, pointing out the racist history of the man the school was named after.
Woodrow Wilson was the 28th president of the United States, serving from 1913 to 1921, and known for leading the country through World War I. He was a segregationist who wrote a history textbook praising the Confederacy and was an advocate of the Ku Klux Klan.
According to News Tribune archives, Wilson High School first opened with the name in 1958.
“The committee recommended a name change due to Wilson’s history of being a KKK sympathizer as well as his holding and participating in other racist ideologies and practices, and given the current climate of rampant police brutality, the acknowledgment of system racism, and the strengthening of the Black Lives Matter movement,” according to district documents.
A committee made up of various alumni and stakeholders met over the past few months to come up with new names. A survey to the public was sent in September with roughly 3,800 responses. In December, the committee proposed several options: Dolores Silas High School, education-equality activist Ruby Bridges High School, and Wilson High School, dropping “Woodrow” altogether.
Santorno’s recommendation said that keeping Wilson would be “disingenuous to the intent of the renaming process and what ‘Wilson’ really stood for.”
Jim King, a 1975 graduate of Wilson High School, told the board that the former president was a racist but said Wilson High School has its own identity and history.
“You really need to go back, start over, have more public input and more consideration of where this should go, or you’re going to end up like San Francisco, which yesterday decided they had to rename 44 schools,” he said during public comment.
Brent Chantler, an alumnus and current teacher at Wilson, said he supports the district’s efforts to fight racial inequality but suggested the change to Wilson High School instead.
“My concern is that a complete rebranding could be an action that strips many of us of a large part of our identity,” he said during public comment. “Wilson is ingrained in the community and culture of Tacoma, not Woodrow Wilson.”
Indigo Hill, a Wilson student, told the board Thursday evening that the name change is something that needed to happen.
“I’m glad that I live in a community that sees the problems that are going on and really works to correct them,” Hill said.
This story was originally published January 29, 2021 at 10:20 AM.
