New Columbus School Name Chosen By Medford School Committee

MEDFORD, MA — The Medford School Committee approved a new name for the Columbus Elementary School Monday night.

The Committee voted to change the name of the school to Missituk, the Native American name for the Mystic River, a spokesperson for the district said. The vote was 4-3, with three members in favor of late educator and former Columbus School principal Jean Barry-Sutherland.

Belinda Sutton, a former slave at the Royall House who successfully petitioned the state legislature for a pension from the estate of her enslaver, was also among the finalists submitted to the School Committee by the Advisory Committee to rename Columbus Elementary School.

The change will take effect before the start of the next school year.

Monday's decision was the culmination of a contentious process that began last summer when the School Committee voted to remove Columbus's name, sparking questions of transparency from both Italian-American heritage organizations and residents who said they were unaware the Committee was taking up such a resolution.

At a School Committee meeting in March, member Paulette Van der Kloot said the Committee received 96 letters and one petition with 396 signatures in support of the change and three letters and a petition with 650 signatures against it.

Much of the pushback came from Medford's Italian-American residents, who said they were being stripped of an icon.

"There will certainly still be part of our population which disagrees with the change altogether, no matter what we say or do," Van der Kloot said at the time. "And that is because they feel that something is being taken away from them."

The issue remained divisive as the renaming process progressed. An Advisory Committee was formed to field nominees and debate the merits of each, whittling the list down to 18 semi-finalists and, eventually, three finalists to submit for consideration.

But comments from Advisory Committee member Hendrik Gideonse questioning Barry-Sutherland's treatment of students of color, as well as the means by which she had been elevated as a popular choice, sparked further outrage.

In a Facebook post, Gideonse discussed his unfamiliarity with Barry-Sutherland and claimed her popularity as a replacement for Columbus stemmed from "cheating" among people who did not want the name the change.

"So we only get positive anecdotal information," he wrote. "We don't know if for instance she was awful to Black students."

During a lengthy public comment session at a City Council meeting last month, residents passionately defended Barry-Sutherland as a dedicated educator who had a lasting impact on her students. Some also accused elected officials of having a "Marxist agenda" and unfairly labeling Medford a "racist" city.

Days after the meeting, Gideonse resigned. He said his words were "intentionally taken out of context in order to disrupt the renaming process," but he regretted that they had been "used to inspire the anger" of the community.

Monday's vote came during a nearly six-hour School Committee meeting, which included the issuance of citations to retiring Director of Health Services Toni Wray for her work navigating the district through the coronavirus pandemic.

Editor's Note: In an earlier version of this story, Hendrik Gideonse's name was spelled incorrectly.