Quotes of Support from our Survey

All of the quotes below are from our survey. If you have not already, you can fill it out here.

I think a school's name should be reflective of the ideals and people the school represents. By keeping the name of a man who supported racist and hurtful ideas, we are wrongfully endorsing his actions and his beliefs and representing our school's population.

- Current Student

I am an African-American student, and it feels weird to go to a school honoring the name of people who would’ve enslaved my ancestors. It feels like a slap in the face.

- Current Student

I knew before I started school at Wheeler (class of 1971) that the name was from a not-very-famous Confederate general who wasn't even from Georgia. East Cobb Jr Hi, where I went, across the street, we were the Rebels (our mascot was a cartoon Rebel General with a big moustache) and our fight song was "Dixie". It wasn't very subtle.

I remember too that originally the school name was Joseph E. Wheeler High School but the initials spelled J*E*W and THAT certainly upset the boat, so the Joseph and the E were [unofficially] dropped pretty quickly. I remember giggling about that a bit...

And when I was a junior at Wheeler there was one lone Black student and God did I feel bad for him. I can't imagine what he must have had to deal with.

- Wheeler Alum

Wheeler was established and its name chosen just as schools were being integrated in Georgia. The choice of a Confederate general has to be seen in the context of the movement at the time to support segregation and racism by the embrace of Confederate symbols. For example, ten years earlier the Georgia flag was changed to include the Confederate flag...

When I was a student, we never discussed the school's namesake, and I believe that is because there was an unspoken understanding that we did not want to embrace the legacy of a confederate general. Regardless of how many black students there are at Wheeler (and even if there were none), it is imperative for the school to recognize its name was chosen in an effort to reinforce segregationist, Jim Crow values, and there is no redeeming a choice to continue with Joseph Wheeler High School's name unchanged.

As an alumnus, I would be proud to return to a reunion at a school with a different name. It would serve as recognition of the diverse student body and the educational values the school was supposed to stand for... As current students, you have the most important voices in this matter, and any change you make will support generations of students at a hopefully renamed school for years after you graduate.

- Wheeler Alum

1) Joseph Wheeler was not a resident of Georgia and has no [significant] ties to Cobb County.

2) The Confederacy was treasonous and it any anyone associated with it should not be memorialized.

3) The name of Wheeler coincided with Cobb County being forced to integrate in 1965. It was done to shame and hurt black youth who integrated the school system.

4) The very diverse student body deserve to have a school name that is representative of our community.

- Current Parent

Joseph Wheeler has no connection to Cobb or the area and certainly does not meet the CCSD naming requirements. As a Confederate general whose portrait in his Confederate uniform hung in the main entrance for many years, he does not represent the community and student body.

- Current Parent & Former Faculty

I would like to see it changed if the student body, alumni and community support the change. I think the faculty, as stakeholders, are not as important as the students and the alumni on this issue. I hope that every effort to solicite input from the alumni is being made.

- Faculty Member

It is important that we demonstrate to young minds that people of merit and of distinction get remembered and get honored... It is true that history must not be erased, that segregation is a part of our country's shameful past. But continuing to maintain a legacy of someone who believed that our brothers and sisters where less of human dignity or love, is not someone who should continue to be honored through academics.

In liturgy Satan is an important part of Christianity, no matter how evil. Now, no one in Christianity attempts to forget about him, but instead tries to teach and empower its followers to not follow in it's lead. If Satan begun to have statues and schools built in his name under the importance of not erasing history, we would begin to question who the Christian faith believed and attributed its core values to. The same goes to Wheeler.

- Community Member

It makes me uncomfortable and disappointed to even think of walking in a school whose name holds so much hatred towards my own people.

I deserve, and my fellow students deserve to know that our interests and comfortability as students of color is being looked out for.

It's an undeniable, and objective truth that as of now the board does not care holistically, but they surely do boast diversity when it's necessary. We need, and we deserve immediate and direct action.

- Cobb County Student

The name was created for the purpose of making a body of students feel unwelcome and these ideas are no longer supported nor should they still be displayed or propagated in any way.

- Cobb County Student

As an African American student, the name doesn't sit right with me considering my school is named after someone with a confederate history who had hate for my kind of people.

- Current Student

No CCSD school should be on the Southern Poverty Law Center’s lists of confederate monuments.

- Community Member

The timing of the naming is very important to me in its purpose and significance. I want to live in a community that is welcoming and safe for all and I want this to be reflected in everything we do.

- Current Parent

My children will attend WHS. They currently attend WHS feeder schools. We are African American and we don’t feel that our children should attend a school and play sports for a school named after a man who didn’t believe that our children should be treated as humans.

- Cobb County Parent