After spending 4 long years of my life at East High School I have taken pride in my school from sports to personal life-changing accomplishments that have made me who I am today. Today, I learned that East High School had its name changed to Bettye Davis High School. This was quite a shock to me since I was never told beforehand about the name being changed, I thought if the school was going to have a name change at least I would have some say in the decision. I never even got a proper graduation, I just pull up to a parking lot and have them hand me my diploma while i'm in my car and had me leave afterwards, so first I don’t even get a graduation, and now the only thing I have left to lose is the name of the school that I worked so hard to graduate from, changing the name of East High has taken away a part of me that I can only hope to have back. My voice should not have to be heard after an important decision like this is made, if I was able to stand in that meeting room where they discussed changing East High Schools name I would have poured my entire soul into a speech on the spot. Shortly after learning about the name change, I learned about how Bettye Davis had a very successful career in politics and that she was a political rep for the area the school is in. After learning about how Bettye Davis’s name is taking over my school's name, pride, and reputation, I realize that showing her some recognition is important and I can agree that she should be known for what she's done for us, yet there were so many other options for what to name after her, out of everything to take away, why did it have to be the name of the entire school. Another question I have is why this idea was made in the first place, I found multiple reliable news sources stating that the health and social services committee room in the Alaska State Capitol was also named after Bettye Davis before the idea of renaming East High had happened. The Anchorage School District picked between East High and two elementary schools, which would have had a way smaller impact on the alumni and community overall. On top of that, East High is the largest school in the state, ASD could have named any number of locations and landmarks of the school after her, off the top of my head I can think of the library, gym(since her name and history could be introduced at the first pep rally every year.), auditorium(Probably the nicest place in the school to name her after), pool, or any of the sections of the school like upper and lower Benson(some sections have already been named after people so naming a section of the school after her would make sense). In an Anchorage Daily News article our principal Sam Spinella said “The renaming of the high school is a lot more than just changing its name,” Spinella said. “East High School is the second oldest high school in the city. There’s tradition that goes along with that. There’s a lot of reputation that goes along with that throughout the state and also in the Lower 48.” Not only will East High alumni and current students be affected by this name change, our sports rivalry traditions will never be the same again either. Just take a look at west for example, they used to be called Anchorage High School, and their football jerseys still have A's on them, but at sports games we all call them west because that’s the name that took over. The same thing will happen to east, our traditions like our boot game every year against Bartlett won't be Bartlett vs East anymore and will never be the same again because of our history and tradition. Bettye Davis wanted to give whatever she could to the students she looked out for, the last thing she would ever want is to be the person to take away everything she worked so hard for all that time. If you really want to honor Bettye Davis’s memory, name something after her that won't take away from the community, school, students, and alumni like me that want East High School to have its former glory given back by the woman who only ever wanted to keep on giving.