A Confederate soldier statue will not rise again at Savanna High School.
An art teacher’s yearlong effort to restore the fiberglass figure, known as “Johnny Rebel,” was unanimously rejected this month by the Anaheim Union High School District board amid concerns that the Civil War-era image is racially insensitive.
“I am totally understanding of PTA members or alumni or the community coming in to revive a tradition,” school board member Al Jabbar said. “But when you want to bring back a tradition that is so divisive and brings bad memories for a certain part of our community, that’s not what we’re about.”
Johnny Rebel was once considered an icon at Savanna High, standing in the school’s quad since 1964. Over time, the statue’s metal skeleton became rusted and the fiberglass facade decayed, prompting district officials to dismantle it in 2009.
The statue, standing 10 to 12 feet tall and appearing to charge at its enemy with a rifle, is kept in a district storage yard.
Jim Perez, an art teacher at Savanna High for the past 21 years, said he launched a campaign last year aimed at restoring the statue amid inquiries from former students who wanted to preserve a piece of history at Savanna High, home of the Rebels.
“For me, it wasn’t an issue of right or wrong, but rather restoring some sentimental value that the alumni had for the statue,” Perez said.
“I thought the kids should be able to have a discussion about the statue, the mascot and the whole Rebel identity.”
Perez first made his pitch to the school board in December, saying that it would cost about $45,000 to restore the statue and rebuild an accompanying pedestal.
He attempted to garner support on Facebook and an online petition that received a couple hundred signatures.
Perez said he dropped his proposal shortly after learning that it would likely be rejected by the school board, and that it was opposed by members of the Orange County branch of the NAACP.
“The Confederacy was pure evil,” NAACP member Frank Mitchell III told the school board. “No way can we have a statue representing that evil anywhere.”
School board member Anna Piercy said: “If it’s gone, then let’s leave it gone.”
Contact the writer: 714-704-3769 or amarroquin@ocregister.com
