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  • Sophia Jones-Redmond, superintendent of Thornton Fractional High School District 215,...

    Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown

    Sophia Jones-Redmond, superintendent of Thornton Fractional High School District 215, and Rita Oberman, school board president, lead a meeting June 22, 2021, in Calumet City.

  • Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing.

    Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown

    Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing.

  • Chris Roberts, a social studies teacher at Thornton Fractional South...

    Ted Slowik / Daily Southtown

    Chris Roberts, a social studies teacher at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, addresses the District 215 School Board June 22, 2021, in Calumet City.

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The Thornton Fractional High School District 215 Board has decided to wait until fall to choose a new nickname to replace Rebels, which had Confederate connotations in a district where nearly two-thirds of students are Black.

The school board voted 4-2 Tuesday night to reject the nickname Redwolves amid concerns about the process for selecting a new nickname for students at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing.

Chris Roberts, a social studies teacher and 2002 alumnus, urged the board to reconsider the recommendation.

“I know this has been a long and difficult process, but there should be no rush to make a selection,” Roberts said.

Students recently were given an option to choose from among three finalists. Of 366 students who voted, 44% picked Redwolves, 29.2% chose Redhawks and 26.8% selected Flying Aces.

Fewer than 20% of the school’s 1,850 students voted, and the 161 votes for Redwolves is just 8.7% of the student population, Roberts said.

“Many of the students who I have talked to said they were not happy with any of the final three choices,” Roberts said.

The district serves 3,356 students from Burnham, Calumet City, Lansing and Lynwood. District 215 was established in 1924 and had one school until 1958. The original school in Calumet City became Thornton Fractional North, and the second building was named South.

Chris Roberts, a social studies teacher at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, addresses the District 215 School Board June 22, 2021, in Calumet City.
Chris Roberts, a social studies teacher at Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing, addresses the District 215 School Board June 22, 2021, in Calumet City.

Students born during the postwar baby boom embraced the spirited North-South rivalry. The Lansing school proudly flew the Confederate flag for decades, while a mascot named Ritchie Rebel led fans in cheers at sporting events.

Demographics changed in the region, however, as white flight drove families farther away from Chicago. In 2020, 64.6% of District 215’s students were Black, 26.1% were Hispanic and 6.6% were white, according to Illinois Report Card data.

The school stopped flying the Confederate flag in 1993, when 8% of students were Black. The mascot Ritchie Rebel was retired about five years ago. In August 2020, the school board voted unanimously to cease using the nickname Rebels. The school will continue to be without a nickname until a new one is selected.

A resolution adopted by the school board last August noted that “imagery associated with the Confederacy has racist connotations.”

The school board’s two white members, board President Rita Oberman and Richard Dust, voted Tuesday to adopt the Redwolves nickname. Four Black members — Andrea Ballard, Christopher Dodd, Diana Jackson and Morgan Waller — voted no. Member Marcie Wilson was absent.

“Looking at the data, I felt students deserved the chance to vote on their mascot,” Waller, the board vice president, told me after the vote. “Some of the students weren’t able to vote.”

Roberts, the social studies teacher and alumnus who also is faculty sponsor of the student history club, said he was happy with the board’s decision to reconsider a new nickname in the fall. The project will boost school spirit as students attend classes in person at the school after learning remotely for many months during the pandemic, he said.

“We can go into the school year and get more students involved and hear their voices,” he said.

The process for choosing a new nickname was flawed, he told school board members during public comment. A committee of students was invited to suggest new nicknames, and many other students felt excluded from the process, he said. Many other students did not know when voting was underway, he said.

Roberts read comments from two students who said they were unable to attend the board meeting in person. Kyndall Jackson, a junior at South, wrote that students should be able to vote on more than three choices.

Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing.
Thornton Fractional South High School in Lansing.

“Instead of having a small group of students decide which names make it into the final round, we have the entire school decide,” Jackson wrote, in part. “This way, students will not have to feel like they were kept in the dark about a resolution that will directly affect them.”

Sarahi Sida-Valdez, another junior, wrote that it would be easier to publicize the selection process when students are back in the school building.

“Not only did less than half of the student population vote, but some students were unaware about the polls being taken,” she wrote. “I just wish there was no rush in getting the school a mascot.”

The board majority seemed to show compassion and empathy for students by delaying the decision. There also seemed to be consensus that a greater number of students need to be involved in the selection process.

“This year was hard for many of the students who were constantly staring at screens all year, feeling like they had no control over anything happening in their school career,” Sida-Valdez wrote. “This decision is something we should have control over, so please lets us.”

Roberts suggested that in addition to student input, administrators should seek opinions from teachers, other employees, parents, alumni, business owners and others. A school nickname can help shape an identity for an entire community.

The Flying Aces option was an apparent nod to Lansing Municipal Airport, a village-owned facility with historic roots. The airport’s Ford Hangar, which opened in 1927, was added to the National Register of Historic Places in 1985.

Henry Ford bought land for the airport and had the hangar built to showcase Ford-built airplanes.

Ted Slowik is a columnist with the Daily Southtown.

tslowik@tribpub.com