An Open Letter to Dr. Mae Carol Jemison~Edited

Dear Dr. Mae Carol Jemison,

It's me, RedEye.  Have your ears been burning lately?  The reason I ask is because you are being talked about 24/7 in the Rocket City.  In case you haven't heard, the Superintendent and the Huntsville City Schools Board of Education, voted to replace the name James Oliver Johnson  with  your name, despite opposition  from the majority of Alumni, parents, students, and the community.  The reason the BOE states for wanting to replace the name  J.O. Johnson with  your good name is because you are well....black  and because JOJ is a so called  "failing" school. In other words, they don't want to fix the problem, they want to slap your good name on it and call it fixed.  Nod.  Nod. Wink.  Wink.

Due to changing demographics, J.O. Johnson High School is predominately African American.  With all due respect to you and your many accomplishments, many consider the actions of the BOE to be a slap in the face to J.O. Johnson and it's proud alumni and an attempt to "pacify us" adding  insult to injury.

Johnson High School is not black or white, it is blue and gold and to connect Johnson High to a certain ethnic background is disrespectful, and it's hurtful to those alumni and current students who are not of the same background. You are alienating us with racial prejudice and segregation. And 100 years from now, when Johnson's ethnic landscape has morphed again, the only thing that will hopefully still be intact is its legacy. Its Alma mater. It's mascot, the mighty Jaguar that has come to symbolize perseverance against all odds in this city and beyond.

I also want you to let you know that in their haste to place your good name on the new school building,  the BOE violated their own naming policy.

Last night the Huntsville City School Board of Education violated their own policy on the Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name (Policy 2.9, presented September 5, 2013) by concluding the process and voting on the new names approximately three weeks before they were allowed to do so.
On September 5, 2013, the board met and discussed during their work session a new policy entitled, “Selection of School, Facility, and/or Property Name” (Policy 2.9). This policy was necessary to ensure that the process of receiving new names for schools would be as open to the public as possible. Laurie McCaulley, who was at that time serving as the School Board President, assured the public present that evening that the public would have every opportunity to “have input on these changes.”

 The public did not have every opportunity to "have input on these changes", as a matter of fact, it was the opposite.

The board was receiving political heat over this decision, and they don’t like political heat or pressure. Despite their claims to the contrary, they actually do prefer it when the board room is filled with nothing but employees whom they control.

That was why they held between 10 and 15 seats in a standing room only crowd last night for TFAers. (There are, by the way, only about 50 seats in the room that aren’t always taken by school district employees.)

 That was why they kept the general public waiting outside until 5:15pm.

 That was why they instigated a new policy of requiring all questions from the public during the work session part of the meeting to be submitted in writing (that they then refused to read out loud).

That was why Dr. Robinson decided that it would be a good idea to berate Johnson parents for supposedly caring more about the name of the school rather than the test scores when she said, “My challenge would be to those folks who have been spending a lot of time focused on the name that you might want to put that same focus on the test scores.”

That was why Ms. McCaulley seemed to have such difficulty reading citizens’ questions or putting forth a coherent statement on her position.

That was why Mr. Blair seemed incapable of doing anything other than demand complete silence from a crowd of interested citizens.

That was why Dr. Wardynski asked security to remove the few non-employees who managed to get seats in the room.

Mr. Culbreath’s only contribution was to claim, by holding up a folder that he “had received only a few hours ago,” that he just didn’t understand how anyone could claim that this process had been anything other than transparent.

Only Mr. Birney seemed genuinely concerned about the process that they were pushing through when he shared that Mae Jemison didn’t appreciate her southern heritage by pointing out, “You may have the possibility of Dr. Jemison refusing this as she has publicly declaimed the fact that she was born in the south. She resented that heritage.” Mr. Birney was the lone dissenting voice on this matter last night.

Anyhoo, I just wanted to let you know what was being done in your name, and wondering if you approve?

Your friend,
RedEye