Too soon to say what may happen to name of Ceres junior high that honors Chavez
Recent startling allegations against the late farmworker rights leader Cesar Chavez have put attention on the Central Valley’s institutions that bear his name, including a Ceres junior high school.
United Farm Workers, the union that Chavez co-founded, abruptly cancelled events in honor of Chavez that were planned for the anniversary of his birth, March 31, after the New York Times reported on his sexual abuse of two minors in the 1970s and rape of his union co-founder, Dolores Huerta.
The 2011 naming of the newly built Cesar Chavez Junior High School was a departure from the Ceres Unified School District’s general practice of honoring local leaders only, according to the Ceres Courier. “Controversy dogged the beginning of the new campus,” the Courier reported at the time. “CUSD trustees caught flak for naming the school for the late Mexican-American farm labor leader since the board strayed from its policy of naming schools for local persons who made a difference in the lives of young people.”
Chavez is largely regarded as one of the most influential union rights leaders in the history of the country.
Beth Parker Jimenez, communications specialist for Ceres Unified, said there are no immediate steps being taken to address the name.
“We are only just becoming aware of the allegations,” Jimenez said.
This story was originally published March 18, 2026 at 11:27 AM.
