PORTLAND, Ore. ( KOIN ) — Two Vancouver schools will don new names to separate themselves from the violent legacies of their eponymous historical figures.
On Tuesday, Vancouver Public School’s Board of Directors voted to rename Harney Elementary to Edgewood Elementary and Peter S. Ogden Elementary to Ogden Elementary.
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The change has been a topic of discussion at both schools, which formed committees to consider different names during the 2023-2024 academic year.
Harney Elementary’s namesake, General William S. Harney, spearheaded the U.S. Army’s Department of Oregon and Department of the West in the mid-1800s. Peter S. Ogden Elementary’s namesake is known as one of the first explorers to visit the Salt Lake Basin, and he served as the Hudson Bay Company’s Columbia Department chief trader in the early 1800s…