San Diego Unified’s Junipero Serra High School will now be called Canyon Hills High School after students successfully petitioned for the name change, saying that the name of the founder of California’s mission system is offensive to indigenous peoples whose ancestors were subjected to its doctrine.
On Tuesday night, the San Diego Unified School Board unanimously voted for the name change and to change the school’s mascot from a conquistador to a rattlesnake, or a “Rattler.”
Students who started the name and mascot change effort said it’s offensive and racist to have a conquistador as a mascot because it represents the Spanish colonization of the Americas, during which Spanish conquerors carried out a genocide of indigenous peoples, killing millions by disease and by force. Serra was the founder of California’s mission system, which assimilated indigenous people to Catholicism and Spanish culture and was a key strategy of Spanish colonization.
Local indigenous leaders praised the name change and said it will bring “much-needed healing” to the Kumeyaay and other first peoples.
“This very important name change starts the process of telling the truth,” said Angela Elliott-Santos, chairwoman of the Kumeyaay Heritage Preservation Council and Manzanita band of the Kumeyaay Nation, during Tuesday night’s board meeting. “The change will provide for a more accurate and ethical view of history.”
In addition to changing the school’s name, Elliott-Santos said the Kumeyaay Nation looks forward to seeing an acknowledgement of Kumeyaay land on the school campus and working with the school to create an accurate curriculum about Kumeyaay culture and history.
The school will be renamed Canyon Hills, or Mat Kwatup KunKun, because it is located in the Tierrasanta and Murphy Canyon neighborhoods, which have a canyon landscape. Meanwhile, the neighborhood Tierrasanta is sometimes referred to as “The Island in the Hills.”
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