Oxnard students push to change junior high school’s name

OXNARD, Calif. - Two Oxnard students from Richard B. Haydock Academy of Arts and Science are pushing to change the name of their junior high school. They say the school was named after a public official who was racist.

“I just feel like that will not last long because we are going to change it,” said Kimberly Oredel, who is s a 7th grader at Haydock. “We feel like we are going to do it.”

Last year Oredel went to her 6th grade teacher to ask who Richard B. Haydock was.

“I admitted that I didn’t know,” said Lauren Mendez, the 6th grade teacher at Haydock. “So we began to do research.”

The two did a lot of research and came across a book online.

“We came across 'Strategies Of Segregation' by David Garcia, and some of his quotes,” said Mendez. “I was paraphrasing for Kimberly what we were reading and immediately you could tell she as astonished and so was I that we had his name on our school when he represented segregation and racism.”

Mendez reached out to the author to check the source and he reassured her the information came from the Oxnard School Districts archives.

That is when the Oredel wrote a letter to the Superintendent.

“He agreed to meet with us,” said Mendez. “He showed us support and said go ahead and form your club and committee and finally it went to the board last May and it was approved.”

Oredel and Desiree Luis have been pushing for this change since last year and now it is in the process of becoming a reality.

“I knew that we had to do something, and Kimberly knew that too since she is someone who doesn’t like negative thoughts,” said Desiree Luis, who is also a 7th grader at Haydock.

“It doesn’t describe our school because inside we really do not care what race we are,” said Oredel. “We just treat each other equal and we are all friends.”

“I am extremely proud of what they have done and their commitment to not letting it go,” said Mendez. “I think when we see Haydock and see segregation and racist, it doesn’t represent our community and so we want something that does.”