Still No Decision On Renaming John Witherspoon Middle School

PRINCETON, NJ — No decision or vote was made following a second public meeting on Monday night discussing the possibility of renaming John Witherspoon Middle School.

The Princeton Policy Committee of the Board of Education has held two virtual public meetings in June and on Monday night to discuss the topic. Both times the majority of the public's response was in favor of renaming the school. However, the committee has noted that there is a process that must be followed before making a decision.

"The matter will be taken up at a properly convened Board of Education meeting," said BOE member Michele Tuck-Ponder. "We have a process that we have set up from the beginning that we will follow… so when we make a decision we are confident as many people as possible had the opportunity to speak and understand what process is."

Several residents expressed their displeasure that a vote or decision on the renaming of the school was not made including Princeton High School graduate, Geoffrey Allen. Allen created a petition to rename the school which promoted these discussions. Read More: Princeton To Discuss Renaming John Witherspoon Middle School

"Now is the time to make the decision. The name is another question but you should at least say you are on board with this decision if it is already democratically supported by most of the people who have come here and taken their time out of their lives to speak on this issue," Allen said at Monday's meeting.

There was one resident, Liam Allan-Dalgleish, who was not in favor of renaming the school. He claimed this decision would be like erasing history.

"It does no one any good to rewrite history... History is not there for that reason, it is there so we will learn from it," Allan-Dalgleish said. "The only thing we are really accomplishing is to make ourselves feel free of the guilt associated with whatever the topic maybe…. There is a hell of a lot of guilt associated with slave traffic and slave ownership."

BOE member Dafna Kendal disagreed with Allan-Dalgleish.

"No one is looking to rewrite history, we don't have the power to do that... I think what we are looking to do is to judge our heroes by 21st century standards and if we do it that way then he doesn't live up to the honor," Kendal said of John Witherspoon.

Kim Dorman questioned how long the process would take before a decision is made.

Acting Superintendent Barry Galasso said the matter needs to be referred to the policy committee who could make a decision as quickly as within the next month.

"If we are going to make this a teachable moment… then we would have to have a generic name that is given to school until a new name is chosen by students and community members and approved by the Board Of Education," Galasso said.

It is ultimately up to the policy committee to make a decision on whether to vote on this issue without a new name being designated for the school first.

During the July 28 Board of Education meeting, Board member Debbie Bronfeld introduced a resolution to remove the name of John Witherspoon from the middle school as soon as possible. After much discussion from board members, it was decided it was too soon to take the name down without a proper replacement. Read More: Discussion To Continue On Renaming John Witherspoon School

The resolution went up for a vote and failed with six board members voting it down, one abstaining and two voting for it including Bronfeld and Daniel Dart.

See below to view the entire public hearing:

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