Name change: Don’t cancel Wilson High heritage

Re: “Name change process underway for Tacoma schools amid racism concerns,” (TNT, 7/16).

So a rookie principal wants to change the name of a high school with over 60 years of history. Does she know the longest unbeaten streak in American high school history occurred at Wilson? Does she know who the coach was?

Does she know anything about Maynard Ponko, the original principal who served 17 years, compared to her two? Does she know about Maynard II?

Did she consult the thousands of alumni? It is our history she wishes to cancel.

School names are about more than the person who originally bore the name. If all the principal and the football player know is that President Woodrow Wilson was sympathetic to the KKK, they are very uneducated.

Woodrow Wilson the high school is a very different creature. Almost 50 years ago we had Black student body leaders, great Black athletes, a very welcoming environment for the disabled and an all-inclusive culture.

At the Class of 1975’s 40th reunion we had hundreds show. Other classes are just as proud.

This is not a decision to be made by people ignorant of the school’s history.

This story was originally published July 18, 2020 at 9:26 AM with the headline "Name change: Don’t cancel Wilson High heritage."