HAINES, Alaska (AP) - The name of a once-revered superintendent has been taken off the high school gym in a small Alaska fishing town following allegations of sexual abuse, school officials announced.
The Haines Borough School District board voted unanimously Tuesday to rename the gym that was previously named in honor of Karl Ward, the Chilkat Valley News reported .
The facility will now simply be called the Haines High School Gymnasium.
Ward worked in the school district for more than 20 years, including as superintendent in the 1960s and ’70s. He died in 1997.
Earlier this year, a man made a cellphone video before he died by suicide alleging abuse by Ward. The video prompted five other men to speak out about the sexual advances or sexually abuse that Ward had inflicted on them when they were students decades ago.
The plaque outside the gym bearing Ward’s name was removed after the allegations surfaced.
“I certainly wouldn’t want any named facility within our school to represent something that hurts people,” board member Sara Chapell said. “To hear that it hurt people that walked by the gym, it’s really terrible.”
Chapell said she would like the board to consider examining other district facilities named after people.
“I hope that by changing the name it provides some closure for people who were affected by this,” board president Anne Marie Palmieri said.
Haines, a fishing and tourist community of about 1,740, is located about 80 miles (130 kilometers) northwest of Juneau.
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