Pekin Community High School District 303

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

Pekin
,
Tazewell
,
Illinois
61554-5212

United States
Coordinates40°33′46″N 89°37′20″W / 40.5627731°N 89.6222969°W / 40.5627731; -89.6222969Coordinates: 40°33′46″N 89°37′20″W / 40.5627731°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 ratio1.16
LanguageEnglish
MascotDragon
Websitewww.pekinhigh.net

Pekin Community High School District 303 is a public school district in Pekin, Illinois, that operates one high school, Pekin Community High School (PCHS). As of 2020 the school has 1,780 students.[1]

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.[2]

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 wrongly supposed relation to the Chinese city of Peking.[3][4] The team mascots were a male and a female student who would wear stereotypical Chinese attire, calling themselves the "Chink" and "Chinklette", and striking a gong whenever the team scored. In previous eras the community had almost no Chinese American residents.[5][6]

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.[5] 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.[4] In 1975 the Peoria Journal Star stopped including the mascot name in the publication.[5] A second vote received similar results.[4] As time passed additional publications no longer included the mascot name. The school stopped displaying statues of the mascots.[5] 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, despite being criticized for being degrading, racist, and lacking common decency.[3][4]

Kevin Pummill[]

In April 2019, a web page on the website IdentifyEvropa connected Kevin Pummill, a PCHS social studies teacher, to messages under the name "Undercover Academic" on an Internet site of white supremacist group Identity Evropa.[7][8] PCHS started an investigation, and the teacher resigned early in the investigation. The district superintendent said that the school confirmed that "the teacher made a number of troubling and offensive posts" on an Internet site. At first the school district refused to name Pummill as the teacher involved. The superintendent later said that "the school is not aware of any instances of discriminatory conduct against students by the teacher" as of 22 April 2019 but did not say whether the investigation was complete.[9]

Notable alumni[]

References[]

  1. ^ "District Detail for Pekin CSD 303". nces.ed.gov. Retrieved 19 May 2021.
  2. ^ "Welcome About PCHS." Pekin Community High School District 303. Retrieved on February 15, 2016.
  3. ^ Jump up to: a b "Controversial mascots". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  4. ^ Jump up to: a b c d Simon, Roger. "The Chinks' nickname: It's not PC, it's decency". baltimoresun.com. Retrieved 2019-10-21.
  5. ^ Jump up to: a b c d "Pekin Choose". Sports Illustrated. 2015-11-23. Retrieved 2020-12-12.
  6. ^ "1981: The Pekin Chinks high school team becomes the Pekin Dragons". Chinese-American Museum of Chicago. Chinese-American Museum of Chicago. Archived from the original on 19 August 2015. Retrieved 30 July 2015.
  7. ^ "Kevin Pummill: The "Undercover Academic" Exposed". IdentifyEvropa. 19 April 2019. Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  8. ^ Packowitz, Howard (2019-04-24). "Teacher accused of making racist posts has Twin-City ties". WJBC (website ed.). Cumulus Media. Retrieved 2021-03-24.
  9. ^ Jirasek, Molly (24 April 2019). "Pekin Community High School's Kevin Pummill resigns after allegedly engaging in racist activities". WEEK-TV (website ed.). Retrieved 27 November 2020.
  10. ^ Samuels, Montana (2019-07-24). "Scott Altman, Pekin's own Top Gun". Pekin Times. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  11. ^ Everett Dirksen and His Presidents, p. 11.
  12. ^ An Uncertain Tradition, p. 154.
  13. ^ Tarter, Steve (2019-02-20). "Cosplay, comics, games, toys all featured at PeoriaCon on March 2". Journal Star. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  14. ^ "Mayor Profile". City of Pekin, Illinois. Retrieved 2021-03-12.
  15. ^ "Points puts up a 65 in Pebble Beach Pro-Am". Journal Star. Peoria, Illinois. Associated Press. February 10, 2012. Retrieved February 19, 2012.
  16. ^ "Archived copy". Archived from the original on 2012-04-06. Retrieved 2010-08-09.CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  17. ^ Phelps, Justin (Fall 2005). "From the court to the air: How Coach "Stowell" the show". Hilltopics. 11 (4). Peoria, Illinois: Bradley University. Archived from the original on 2011-06-14. Retrieved 2011-04-19.
  18. ^ Luciano, Phil (2021-06-23). "Pekin native who famously obtained the Zapruder film of JFK's assassination has died at 92". Journal Star. Retrieved 2021-07-26.
  19. ^ Dickson, Ken (2014-02-08). "A golden age for Pekin basketball". Pekin Daily Times. Retrieved 2021-07-26.

External links[]

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