Rolfe Middle School considering nickname change

Officials from John Rolfe Middle School in Varina are considering changing the school’s mascot.

Shortly before the school closed because of COVID-19, a group of Rolfe students proposed to principal Debbie George and the Henrico School Board a mascot change process that would weigh new options to replace the school’s “Indians” mascot, which has been in place since the school opened in 1979.

The school staff sent a survey to staff members, students and alumni that closed in late July. Results are being discussed, Varina District School Board member Alicia Atkins said during the board’s meeting Sept. 24.

Atkins was planning to attend a meeting this week with members of the school community and with the native families of the Samaria Baptist Church, she said. The Samaria Baptist Church — located in New Kent County — and the Chickahominy Indian Tribe were intertwined until the church began taking in members from other heritages in the mid-20th century, according to the church’s site.

Next steps in the mascot process will depend on the discussion, Atkins said.

Freeman High School name to remain; officials working with VCU on new nickname

Officials at Freeman High School already are in the process of changing that school’s nickname, from “Rebels,” which Principal John Marshall announced Aug. 6 would be retired. That decision came following weeks of scrutiny and some 1,500 responses providing input about the nickname, which originally referred to Confederate soldiers.

About 60 percent of that input supported the selection of a new nickname, and a 14-member committee of students, alumni and faculty members followed suit. The school has not used a mascot in a number of years.

Freeman administrators are working with the VCU Brandcenter to create a new nickname and mascot, Tuckahoe District School Board member Marcie Shea said at the board’s meeting last week.

At the same meeting, board members agreed that they would not seek to change the name of the school itself, as some community members have requested. Those who made the request disapprove of the role the school’s namesake – former Richmond News Leader editor and Robert E. Lee biographer Douglas Southall Freeman – played in advancing the “Lost Cause”ideology that helped glorify the Confederacy after the Civil War.

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