Petition starts over future name change of local high school

 

One Windsor parent has more than 2,000 supporters for her online petition against changing the name of W.F. Herman Secondary School.

According to the Greater Essex County District School Board, Herman will become a kindergarten to Grade 12 school by September. It will be merging with Percy P. McCallum so the board said the name should change.

However, for those with strong ties to the school, the connection goes beyond the building—its roots are with the name.

That is why Martha Hradowy created a petition on April 2. Two days later, her petition had more than 1,300 signatures and the numbers are continuing to rise.

Hradowy said it isn’t the amalgamation that is the problem.

“W.F. Herman is a school in the Windsor area that has a long standing tradition (and) history,” said Hradowy. “The school has made a name for itself not only provincially but nationally and I think to maintain the legacy of the school and the tradition and the person that it was named after, that whatever the new school name is, that still needs to be incorporated as part of the new name.”

For many who graduated from Herman, the school holds precious memories. One graduate, Ashley Meyers, met her fiancé there.

Meyers told her daughter about Herman for years, knowing that would be the school her daughter would go to. Although her daughter will still go there because of the neighbourhood, Meyers said it won’t be the same.

“Herman’s a well-known name throughout Ontario so why change it?” said Meyers, who graduated in 2009. “The football team’s great, there’s a lot of support there. If they want to make it into a J.K. to Grade 12 school, fine. I just think they should leave the name alone.”

Hradowy and Meyers are two of many people who feel this way about the name, but not shares their view.

“There is the attachment to it, I understand that, but at the end of the day, that’s what it is: your meaning, your history with it but the change of the name doesn’t change that,” said Kenny Keelan who went to Herman until Grade 11 back in the late 90s. “It doesn’t mean that you have to stop associating with that. You can say this school used to be W.F. Herman and I don’t quite like the name anymore but this is the way it is. It’s just a matter of adapting.”

Keelan also said people should be focused on the merging. He said the merging will affect many students and staff who will have to adapt to a new environment with new people. So if people can handle the merging, then they should be able to handle a new name.

“I think it supports being able to adapt to new things and I think Windsor as a whole needs a new face, more or less, and this is part of that,” said Keelan. “It’s not attaching to this old mentality and this old image that we have, be it good or bad. We have to change with the times and what have you and I think that’s just something we need to do as a whole.”

Hradowy said the petition will be up at change.org for a couple of weeks and then will be sent to the school board trustees. The board has already created an ad hoc committee responsible for deciding on the name. The committee will also be allowing for public input. Anyone interested in voicing their thoughts on a new name can go to the board’s website and fill out a W.F. Herman Naming Review Form.