When the news broke in March that civil rights leader Cesar Chavez allegedly sexually assaulted multiple women and girls, it sparked a nationwide reckoning as school, city and county officials grappled with streets, buildings, holidays, awards and other institutions that bore his name.
Civil rights leader Dolores Huerta later alleged that Chavez raped her twice and said she bore two children from those encounters. She said she remained silent for decades to protect the civil rights movement, with Chavez serving as its de facto leader.
Since then, Chavez’s name has been removed from numerous places across the country.
On Wednesday, the Pajaro Valley Unified School District Board of Trustees got its first look at the names selected by the renaming committee formed to recommend a new name for Cesar Chavez Middle School in Watsonville.
The committee’s top choice was Central Coast Middle School, which received unanimous support from the 11-member panel.
Principal Jason Rooney, who led the committee, said the name was selected because it reflects the school’s regional identity and retains the initials “CCMS,” allowing the existing mural, athletic wear and other branded materials to remain in use. As a result, the cost of the name change would be about $25,000.
The committee included students, staff, teachers and community members.
The second choice, supported by an 8-0-1 vote, was Tagami-Hashimoto Middle School, named for longtime Pajaro Valley educators Jeff Tagami and Mas Hashimoto “for their lasting impact and dedication to students of the Pajaro Valley community,” Rooney said.
That name would require new signs, uniforms and staff gear, costing about $110,000, Rooney said.
Tagami, a 1972 graduate of Watsonville High School, was a poet, educator and advocate for social justice. He gained national recognition for writing that illuminated the experiences of Filipino and Asian American communities in the Pajaro Valley. His poetry and prose, including the acclaimed poem “Song of Pajaro,” explored the lives of farmworkers and working-class families whose stories were often absent from mainstream literature.
He taught writing, composition and literature at Cabrillo College, earned degrees from UC Santa Cruz and San Francisco State University, and remained committed throughout his life to issues of justice, history and cultural identity.
at their Watsonville home in 2020.
Hashimoto turned a childhood marked by wartime incarceration into a lifetime of teaching Watsonville about civil rights, memory and public service. Born in Watsonville in 1935 to Japanese immigrant parents, he and his family were among the roughly 120,000 Japanese Americans incarcerated by the U.S. government during World War II, an experience that shaped his 36-year career as a history teacher and decades of advocacy.
Hashimoto, who died in 2022, taught nearly 7,000 students at Watsonville High School, his alma mater, and became one of the region’s most persistent voices on the imprisonment of Japanese Americans. He spoke in classrooms, at rallies and through his TED Talk, connecting that history to contemporary struggles against racism and injustice.
His community contributions included organizing a 1992 graduation ceremony for Nisei students denied their diplomas because of incarceration and leading the 2002 “Liberty Lost … Lessons in Loyalty” reenactment of Watsonville’s forced removal of Japanese Americans. He also helped found the Pajaro Valley Federation of Teachers, edited the Watsonville-Santa Cruz JACL newsletter for more than 25 years and remained deeply involved with the Watsonville Buddhist Temple.
The item will return to the board later this year for a final vote.
Trustee Misty Navarro said the name Central Coast Middle School would allow the school’s mural to remain while saving the district money.
“To me it’s a no-brainer,” she said. “I wish we could vote now.”
Trustee Olivia Flores said she also supports the recommendation.
“I think this is the right choice for the school,” she said.
