Wheeler student leaders seek 'dialogue' on school name change

Wheeler name change

Several students at Wheeler High School said Wednesday they want to “start a dialogue” about possibly changing the school’s name in the wake of online petitions that were started over the summer.

Several students and their faculty adviser met on a Zoom call that included invited media representatives (including East Cobb News), as they organize around an effort that includes an online survey and possibly a rally in the spring semester.

All of the students spoke in favor of changing Wheeler, named after Joseph Wheeler, a Confederate general in the Civil War.

East Cobb News first reported in June that online petitions had been created to change both Wheeler and Walton. The latter is named for George Walton, a Georgia signatory to the Declaration of Independence who was a slave owner.

The petitions came about in the wake of the George Floyd death in May and Black Lives Matter protests that followed this summer.

The Wheeler petition, started by a group called “Wildcats for Change,” has more than 4,600 signatures, including Cobb Board of Education member Charisse Davis, who represents the Walton and Wheeler clusters.

The Wheeler student petition is a separate effort that includes a website with background information and a survey for current students to fill out.

The mission statement reads in part:

“A name change would be a statement that Cobb County stands with its students against racism and white supremacy, and fights for inclusion and diversity. Now is the time to make change for good.”

The Wheeler students also have spoken during a public comment period before the Cobb Board of Education in favor of changing the name.

Caroline Hugh, a Wheeler student government co-president, said on the call “we are a product of our time” who said she never thought about taking action until the online petitions surfaced.

Wheeler opened in 1965, just as the Cobb County School District integrated. For Hugh, a senior, the timing “is one of the biggest problems” she has with the Wheeler name.

“It was made clear that they didn’t want to integrate,” said Wheeler senior Sydney Spessard, who said even as a student at East Cobb Middle School she was made to feel the stigma about going to school in a majority-minority attendance zone.

She said she has been asked “often” if she felt unsafe at a school with a significant black student enrollment.

“I sensed the atmosphere of racism,” said Spessard, who is white.

According to the Georgia Department of Education, Wheeler had a black student body of 811 out of a total enrollment of 2,159 as of March 5.

Last month school board member David Morgan expressed a desire to change board policy about naming and renaming of schools, and wants to create a committee to take up the issue.

He didn’t mention Wheeler by name, but said there isn’t a school in the 112-school Cobb district that’s named after an African-American.

That sparked the Wheeler student leaders to do research—they’ve been in touch with Davis—and they’ve e-mailed other board members about the issue. The board hasn’t formally created a committee to examine its naming policy.

Jake McGhee, a Wheeler senior, said he did some research on Joseph Wheeler a couple years ago, and “didn’t know there was anything we could do until this summer, when I saw the change.org petition.”

Wheeler, who grew up in Georgia, was readmitted to the U.S. Army after the Civil War and served in Congress from Alabama. He’s one of the few Confederate officers buried in Arlington National Cemetery.

The students didn’t mention that portion of Wheeler’s biography in their meeting Wednesday and it’s not included on their website, which has links to other schools named after Confederate leaders and the Wheeler plantation in Alabama.

Cameron Ward, a Wheeler Latin teacher, said on the call that “the students have done all of the work” and found that the district doesn’t have a policy for renaming an existing school, only for naming new ones.

“We just want the dialogue started,” said Ward. “We want to be able to find out what the community wants.”

Hugh said she wants the school board to “re-evaluate” the Wheeler name, which she said “does not represent our student body. It’s a bad representation of us as a student body.”

Another petition was created in August by a Connie Behensky, Wheeler graduate, urging that the school name not be changed. That petition has nearly 700 signatures.

When East Cobb News asked the students if they’ve had discussions with other current students who may want to keep the Wheeler name, Hugh said the student government wants “to make sure it’s a two-way communication.”

She said “they just want it to be a dialogue. That was the whole problem in 1965—people at the top deciding.”

Spessard was clear about where she stands on the matter:

“I want to be proud of our diversity,” she said. “But when we walk into a building that’s named after [Wheeler] you can’t feel that pride.”

She said the students are planning to speak out again before the school board at its Nov. 19 meeting. They tried last month, but weren’t aware the board had resumed meeting in person, and she was dismayed some board members weren’t wearing masks.

“We have a lot to say,” Spessard said. “But every time we try we are stopped one way or another.”