Pekin Community High School District 303

Pekin Community High School District 303 is a public school district in Pekin, Illinois.

This article is about the high school district in Illinois. For other Pekin school districts, see Pekin School District.
Pekin Community High School
Address
1903 Court St.

Pekin
,
Tazewell
,
Illinois
61554

United States
Coordinates40.5627731°N 89.6222969°W / 40.5627731; -89.6222969
Information
MottoThe Fire is Within
Established1867
School districtPekin CSD 303
NCES District ID1731110
SuperintendentDanielle Owens
NCES School ID173111003245
Student to teacher ratio16.33
LanguageEnglish
MascotDragon
Websitehttps://www.pekinhigh.net

The district operates one high school, Pekin Community High School (PCHS). As of 2018 the school has 1,821 students. The 125-acre (51 ha) campus includes its principal campus buildings totaling 550,000 square feet (51,000 m2) of space; these buildings house 133 classrooms, the 600 seat F.M. Peterson Theater, two gymnasiums, a natatorium, and several computer labs.[1]

Controversies

Mascot controversy

From the high school's founding until the 1981 school year, the football team was officially named the "Pekin Chinks", represented by a red dragon logo, done in part to represent the town of Pekin's relation to the Chinese city of Peking.[2][3] In previous eras the community had almost no Chinese American residents.[4]

In 1974 members of the National Organization of Chinese-Americans took offense to the name and suggested to municipal government employees that the sports team should have a different name. The members asked the mayor and the city attorney to intervene but the response was that they were unable to. The area Chamber of Commerce argued that the community took opposition to the idea of the mascot being offensive.[4] That year, a vote was conducted within the student body to change the name, and the vote ended in a landslide victory for "chinks" at 1,034 votes to 182.[3] In 1975 the Peoria Journal Star stopped including the mascot name in the publication.[4] A second vote received similar results.[3] As time passed additional publications no longer included the mascot name. The school stopped displaying statues of the mascots.[4] In 1980, the school board forced a name change to "Pekin Dragons"; a name that has stayed to the present. By the 1990s, some graduates from the pre-dragon era of the district have expressed a desire for the original name to return.[2][3]

White supremacism controversy

In April 2019, a social studies teacher was allegedly taking part in racist activities. Due to said allegations, the school initiated an investigation into the activities. During the start of the investigation, the teacher resigned. The investigation found many offensive posts made by the teacher on a private messaging board with a group known as Identity Evropa, under the alias "Undercover Academic".[5] On the message board, the teacher reported to have taught their students discriminatory information, however the investigation found no evidence of this.[6][7]

References
  1. "Welcome About PCHS." Pekin Community High School District 303. Retrieved on February 15, 2016.
  2. "Controversial mascots". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  3. SIMON, ROGER. "The Chinks' nickname: It's not PC, it's decency". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  4. "Pekin Choose". Sports Illustrated. 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  5. "Kevin Pummill: The "Undercover Academic" Exposed". IdentifyEvropa. 19 April 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  6. Jirasek, Molly (24 April 2019). "Pekin Community High School's Kevin Pummill resigns after allegedly engaging in racist activities". WEEK. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  7. Kravetz, Andy (23 April 2019). "Pekin teacher resigns amid allegations of racist, anti-Semitic internet posts". Journal Star. Retrieved 27 November 2020.


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