The San Diego Unified School District has more than 200 schools, but the first one to be renamed is Clairemont High School.
The school mascot is the Chieftains, a name that the state recently banned under the California Racial Mascot Act.
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WATCH HERE“The law specifically refers to derogatory Native American terms. It lists several examples of what that would be, and ‘chieftain’ is actually one of those," said Sabrina Bazzo, a SDUSD board trustee.
Clairemont High is in Bazzo’s district.
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SIGN UP “If there's a group of students that aren't feeling comfortable at our schools because of something as basic as the name of a mascot or the school name, that's something we really need to look into," Bazzo said.
She and the rest of the board will vote on a new process that says school facilities and mascot names should reflect cultural, historical, or community significance. Schools can also be named after their neighborhood, but the name should not reflect historical harm or exclusion.
This vote comes roughly one month after the district unveiled Henry Clay Elementary School's new name: Dr. Bertha O. Pendleton Elementary.
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Pendleton was the district’s first woman and first Black superintendent. Clay was a statesman who enslaved more than 100 people.
“Eliminating that is very important, and we have to acknowledge it, but then we have to move forward, and we cannot deny it because truth … you cannot deny the truth,” trustee Sharon Whitehurst-Payne said.
Whitehurst-Payne said it’s important to shift the spotlight from historical harm to equity, belonging and community empowerment and added that the renaming process was a long and heavily criticized one.
Bazzo said the board has learned from it.
“We learned from that process that we need to listen to our community more closely,” she said. “We need to make sure there's representation, not only from our students, from our staff and from the community itself. That we didn't do as well in the last process. We want to do it right this time.”
Clairemont High School is conducting the mascot change in partnership with local tribal leaders and the broader school community.
She said the district will only process one name change proposal per school year to make sure it’s done properly and in a financially sound way. The funds to rename school facilities or mascots would come out of the district’s general fund.
On Tuesday, the district voted unanimously to revise the policy. A decision on the new mascot will be made by January 2026, with implementation beginning in the 2026-27 school year, the district announced.
