![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/thursday-sept-172026-name-22-625035-d2zapfaa-750965-EPFXJT6v-1024x556.jpg\")
Parents and students walk past the school\u2019s sign after the words \u201cCesar Chavez\u201d were removed during the school\u2019s parent back-to-school night in Long Beach on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\nWhen a school suddenly loses its name, what should the new one represent? At the Long Beach campus formerly known as C\u00e9sar Chavez Elementary, students and parents had a clear-eyed answer: It should represent them.<\/p>\n
Long Beach Unified is kicking off an official renaming process for the school, and at Thursday\u2019s back-to-school night families came ready with their suggestions.<\/p>\n
Sea Lion Elementary (a nod to the school\u2019s mascot) and Long Beach Elementary have proven popular choices among students, according to one Chavez teacher.<\/p>\n
Many suggestions from parents converged around themes of unity, community and place. Dimarrie Price, who has three daughters at Chavez, suggested \u201cThird Street Elementary\u201d while Elicia Duran, whose daughter is in second grade, suggested \u201cGolden Elementary,\u201d each inspired by the streets bordering the school.<\/p>\n
Parents and students walk past the school\u2019s sign after the words \u201cCesar Chavez\u201d were removed during the school\u2019s parent back-to-school night in Long Beach on Thursday, Sept. 17, 2026. Photo by Thomas R. Cordova.<\/p>\n
Other parents said they hoped a new name could emphasize inclusion and togetherness. Johanna O. suggested Our School, and S. Kennedy \u2014 who asked not to have their full names printed \u2014 proposed The Family School. \u201cIt\u2019s important to unify people by utilizing words that connect people,\u201d Kennedy said.<\/p>\n
Long Beach Unified removed the school\u2019s original name after revelations surfaced in March that Chavez had sexually abused girls and women. Since then, the school community has been using makeshift monikers and DIY-ing their school spirit wear to avoid invoking the labor activist.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe just say \u2018school,\u2019\u201d said Chavez parent Natalia Bermudez, an approach other parents said they\u2019ve adopted in the vacuum of a new name. At back-to-school night, Laura Martinez sported a T-shirt adorned with patches that obscured Chavez\u2019s name. New apparel featuring Sea Lion Scholars was also available.<\/p>\n
Calls for LBUSD to adopt a new name have mounted as other schools, parks and monuments named for the political activist have had their names taken down. In the last six months, the district has removed murals<\/a> depicting Chavez, unveiled new art<\/a> and removed signs with the school\u2019s name<\/a>, priming the campus and community for a new identity.<\/p>\n In the meantime, parents have been talking to their kids about the upcoming change, attempting to tailor the message to young children.<\/p>\n Martinez\u2019s daughter, a current Chavez student, heard about her school in the news, prompting Martinez to explain the situation. \u201cThere\u2019s people in this world that do good things that are for good causes, but do bad things to people,\u201d she said she told her daughter. \u201cJust because they\u2019ve done something right doesn\u2019t make them a good person inside.\u201d<\/p>\n Some Chavez parents explained that once more information had surfaced, they could no longer honor Chavez as they had previously \u2013 and that they had a responsibility to course correct. \u201cWe find out things and we do our best to correct what we can control,\u201d Elicia Duran said she told her second grader.<\/p>\n Now, the school community is being invited into the district\u2019s process, and on Thursday, students and parents began submitting their suggestions<\/p>\n Though the district nomination form says that proposed names may fall into one of three categories \u2014 place, idea or person \u2014 one parent shied away from selecting a person\u2019s name in case negative information comes to light in the future, she said.<\/p>\n She said she wished the renaming process had occurred over the summer. Now, she said she hopes the process is completed by the end of the school year so that her fifth-grade daughter\u2019s promotion certificate will say \u201canything but Chavez.\u201d<\/p>\n Proposed school names will be accepted through Friday, Sept. 25, and students, families, staff and members of the school community can submit names through an online Google form, at a community meeting on Wednesday, Sept. 23, or in the Chavez front office, according to a letter from the school\u2019s principal, Brenda Ocampo, to the Chavez community.<\/p>\n After that, the submissions will be reviewed and narrowed by an advisory committee, including parent representatives and Lucy Salazar, the director of engagement for LBUSD. On November 4, \u201ca recommended school name will be brought forward for consideration by the LBUSD Board of Education,\u201d according to another letter from Ocampo.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s been healing for us,\u201d Ocampo said of the renaming process.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When a school suddenly loses its name, what should the new one represent? At the Long Beach campus…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":471920,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[131,133,132],"class_list":["post-471919","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-long-beach","tag-long-beach","tag-long-beach-headlines","tag-long-beach-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471919","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=471919"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/471919\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/471920"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=471919"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=471919"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=471919"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}