Robert E. Lee Middle School, a name that many say harks back to a dark period in American history, will become College Park Middle.
At the urging of parents and others from the College Park neighborhood, the Orange County School Board voted 7-1 to change the name during a regular meeting Tuesday night. The decision wraps up a year-and-a-half-long process that has included community surveys.
Like many other campuses across the South with Confederate names, Lee Middle was named in protest of the U.S. Supreme Court's 1954 historic school desegregation case, Brown v. Board of Education.
Kat Gordon, Orange's only black school board member, said she tried to change the name of Lee decades ago when her own children were students there. District leaders then wouldn't hear it.
"In so many words, they told us to go back to our community and be glad we were even accepted at Robert E. Lee," she said.
The dissenting vote came from board member Christine Moore, who represents Apopka and other areas of northwest Orange. She said the majority of her constituents did not want to change the school's name.
Lee opened in 1956 as Robert E. Lee Junior High School, a whites-only school. The campus is now diverse: 60 percent of the students students are black. Latinos, Asians and multi-racial students make up about one-fifth of the student body.
The district expects to spend $20,000 to scrub the Lee name from places like signs, the gym floor and athletic uniforms.
Support for a new name has been strong but not unanimous in the community.
A 2016 survey of Orange parents, students, employees and others showed 56 percent wanted to call the school something else.
More than a dozen people spoke Tuesday during a public comment period. Opponents, including Robert Lynn, pointed out that Lee was a well-respected man. Lynn also disputed the notion that the school was named in protest of school segregation.
"The 1954 decision had nothing to do with it," he said.
But others, including Julie Montione, said they saw the decision to name a school after Lee as "an act of rebellion."
"This is our moment to decide what kind of message we want to send our community," said Montione, whose daughter is zoned to attend Lee. "Our board does not look like the board in 1956, and our message is not the same."
Similarly, Marsha Hall, whose children may attend Lee when they're older, told board members she understands they can't change history, but urged them to choose a new name that reflects the "inclusion and kindness" of the community.
"Change the name and send the message to my African-American son and daughter that we not only care about how they represent the school, but how the school represents them," she said.
anmartin@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5120
