Despite controversy, name sticks in Connecticut

By Harold Gwin

This isn’t the first time that former President Woodrow Wilson’s race record has been raised as a reason to change a school’s name.

Two Middletown [Conn.] High School juniors, one black and one white, made a similar proposal in 2003, suggesting that the name of the Middletown district’s Woodrow Wilson Middle School be changed for that very reason.

The proposal came at a time when the middle school was to be razed to make way for a new high school. Middle school students would then attend classes in the former high school.

The students made no suggestion about what the new name should be.

The school board appointed a committee in early 2004 to determine if the name should be changed, but no change occurred.

John Hennelly, an assistant school superintendent who served as the committee chairman, said the group, comprised of representatives of the community and the school, was unable to come to a consensus.

The district tore down the middle school, built the new high school and middle school students moved to the old high school in the fall of 2008. Along with them went the Woodrow Wilson Middle School name that remains today.