LAVEEN VILLAGE, AZ — The Phoenix Union High School District is voting on a new name for Cesar Chavez High School on Thursday evening at 6 p.m.
The top five proposed names from the community were:
1. Laveen High School
2. Champion Community High School
3. Cactus Canyon High School
4. Laveen Village High School
5. Sierra Estrella High School
PXU made the decision to rename the school after serious allegations came out against Cesar Chavez in March.
Phoenix Union High School District released the following statement in March:
"The Phoenix Union High School District is deeply saddened and shocked by the recent allegations against Cesar Chavez. While we don’t yet know the full impact of his alleged behavior, we stand firmly with victims of sexual abuse.
Despite the alleged egregious actions of one person, the Phoenix Union High School District remains committed to honoring the thousands of farmworkers, past and present, who organized through the United Farm Workers and beyond to secure safer working conditions and fair wages.
We are thankful for leaders such as Dolores Huerta, who continue to lead through truth-telling.
At Phoenix Union, our commitment to ensuring that our schools are safe, supportive spaces for all students, especially survivors of sexual abuse, is unwavering. We will continue to foster environments that ensure our students’ dignity is protected while feeling seen, protected, and empowered to come forward.
The District’s calendar is Governing Board-approved each year well in advance of the opening of schools. This calendar takes into consideration all state and federal school day requirements. In addition to the need for Governing Board action to remove the holiday from our calendar, we must consider student, staff, and family pre-planned personal activities on this date.
Therefore, the District will follow our approved schedule this year in order to cause the least disruption possible. Our values remain centered around student safety and dignity while receiving a high-quality education.
We look forward to working alongside our community to examine this issue further and make any necessary decisions to our calendar and our high school’s namesake in Laveen as more information comes forward."
Other communities across Arizona have also been looking at changing the names of events and buildings honoring the late labor activist.
