TYLER, Texas — **EDITOR'S NOTE: An earlier version of this article stated the name change issue would be on the agenda for the upcoming regularly board meeting on July 20. That was incorrect and we regret the error.
Tyler Independent School District Superintendent Dr. Marty Crawford believes there will be a vote whether to change the name of Robert E. Lee High School.
Tyler ISD Spokesperson Jennifer Hines tells CBS19 the Tyler ISD Board of Trustees plans to address the issue in a special board meeting separate from the regularly scheduled school board meeting on July 20.
TISD will let the public know 72 hours in advance of a special board meeting, as required by law.
However, some former students, who are part of the Time Is Now movement, say they're still frustrated say, even after asking to be included in the conversation with community leaders, they’re still being left out of the conversations.
“Whenever you ask what it is that we've heard from them, we have heard shockingly little, despite [consistently] asking for representation in this narrative,” said Jonathan Hawk, who graduated from the school in 2019.
Students have been the ones who have been pushing for the name change the most since 2017. They say it seemed the name would change the following school year, after several board members showed support, only for the decision to be put on hold and the students who fought for change were left to go back to REL.
“As a student, I had multiple occasions where teachers just pulled me to the side to voice their opinion against the name change and told me how basically what we're doing with the last cause,” said Brandon Collins, class of ’19. “I was attacked on multiple occasions by teachers. “
That’s why Collins, Hawk and their friend Caroline Crawford, class of ’19, say they’re still continuing to push for Robert E. Lee’s name to be removed from the school.
“It’s not just something they [the board members] can push to the side and forget about until next summer or next year,” Crawford said. “It's something that they [students] have to deal with in a month and a half when they walk under that building into those doors.”
The Time is Now movement is not only asking for the school’s name to be changed, they have a list of demands centered on racial equality.
"Because yes, we are changing, pushing the names, but we also see other problems that are aligned with this idea,” Hawk said. “We're trying to implement implicit bias training for all teachers and staff, because that's not something they have.”
Other demands the organization has besides the name change and implicit bias training for all teachers and faculty include: student representation in meetings and discussions about the name change, outside audits regarding systematic racism and bias within TISD, steps taken to further integrate gifted and talented/advanced placement programs, and the achievement gap narrowed.
“I think the name change has impact on not only the students at the school, but anybody in the city of Tyler as a whole,” Collins said. "It presents a message that I don't think Tyler recognizes that they're giving or want to give.”
The alumni say the difference between this summer compared to previous ones regarding the name change push, is there are more students involved and they hope the board will take their voices into consideration.
The next Tyler ISD School Board meeting will take place at 7 p.m. on Monday, July 20, at the Jim Plyler Instructional Complex.