HISD board finding out howmuch is in a name
Proposed changes to schools met with plenty of resistance
When the Houston ISD board earlier this year voted to bestow new monikers on seven schools named after people with Confederate ties, outrage among alumni as well as some current parents and students was as predictable as it was swift.
Tradition should trump history, they declared. What’s done is done, they argued: Starting down that path could lead to a constant flow of such changes for a variety of long-ago sins.
One school, however, was gung-ho for the change, having already presented its request to the board in 2015 to rename Richard Dowling Middle School in honor of late educator Carrie McAfee, who became the first female principal of a traditional Texas high school when she took the helm of
Madison High in 1974.
When the proposed new names were announced Friday, it was their turn for outrage. McAfee had been replaced by Audrey Lawson, the recently deceased wife of local pastor Bill Lawson. Those who had advocated for McAfee cried foul.
Their indignation was not directed at Lawson, a cofounder of Wheeler Avenue Baptist Church who was widely known for her work in education and long history of civic involvement. Lawson, who died in December, is a deserving candidate — for another school, they said.
“We wanted the name Carrie McAfee,” said Linda Scurlock, a member of the South Houston Concerned Citizens Coalition, which had lobbied for the change unsuccessfully before finally getting a warmer reception last August. “She was the first black high school principal in Texas and very much admired.” ‘Had to be a process’
HISD Trustee Wanda Adams said the previous tentative approval of renaming the school for McAfee went out the door when the other schools were brought into the mix. There was no intent to show disrespect for McAfee, she said.
“With all these other names in play, we had to come up with a policy,” Adams said. “We felt, don’t let it be the board’s decision’ let it be the community’s decision. That ‘X’ed out everything, including previous recommendations from the board. There had to be a process.”
That process involved setting up a committee to review potential names that would include alumni, community leaders, students and school officials. Recommendations from the public were received, though many were immediately nixed because the honoree had to be deceased.
Just as unhappy are parents from Sydney Lanier Middle School. They insist the HISD board did not follow established procedure in hastily placing the name change matter on an agenda before a February meeting. They claim no research was done concerning the individual history of the existing namesakes, nor was a proper evaluation of the cost of the change undertaken. ‘Neighborhood’s rights’
“At the end of the day, this is not just about renaming — this is about taking away a neighborhood’s rights to their school,” said Adrienne Murry, a member of an ad hoc group of parents, alumni and former teachers opposed to the change. “The board voted to take away rights that should belong to the people and vest it with themselves. Railroaded a process, didn’t do their research, and violated their own laws and regulations.”
The proposed name for Lanier is Lanier — as in Bob Lanier, the late mayor of Houston. Although the clever renaming lessens the cost slightly for that school and keeps the Lanier “brand” mostly intact, Murry said the “half-aloaf” solution, while clever, was not the result of a properly implemented process.
“They wanted to make sure we got an unfair hearing to do it this way,” Murry said. “If they move forward, there will be consequences. I’m not sure who will do what, but somebody may sue them.”
Should that happen, a group from Reagan High School — to be renamed Heights High School — is likely to join in. It has had an active “save the name” Facebook page, and like its Lanier counterpart has insisted the entire board-approved process was illegal from the start.
And more to the point, its leaders are actively soliciting donations to a legal fund. ‘Marlin Mama’
At Dowling Middle School, McAfee supporters said they feel steamrolled.
An HISD employee for more than 50 years, McAfee was lauded as a trailblazer when she died in 2006. She had served as principal of Madison High School for 15 years, starting in 1974, and was affectionately referred to as “Marlin Mama.”
“She really kind of set the standard for female administrators,” former HISD trustee Larry Marshall said at the time. “When she became the principal of Madison High School, females were not thought of as secondary principals at the time. She broke the barrier.”
But Audrey Lawson was more widely known, even if she had no connection to the neighborhood around Dowling. It did not hurt that the Lawson family sent out an email encouraging people to support having the school named after her, though Adams said the committee had already picked her when that email went out.
“It seemed to me that the committee was rigged with representatives from the school from the start,” Scurlock said. “They were stacking the deck. We already had a list the first time we met, and Audrey Lawson’s name was first. It was a done deal.”
Adams said the choice of which name to put above the schoolhouse door is out of her hands, even if she does cast one of the nine board votes.
“With all these other schools involved, it became so political, and that changed everything,” she said.