New school names: Liberty, Freedom

© St. Petersburg Times,
published October 3, 2001

TAMPA -- Virginia Lohn told her 11-year-old son, Martin, that she had a very important meeting to attend Tuesday night. The School Board was going to choose names for three new schools.

Martin stopped in the middle of his spaghetti dinner. Why not name a school for a fallen firefighter or something to honor our country, he asked.

Lohn rode to the meeting with four others eager to address the board about the proposed names for a new middle school and a new high school set to open next fall in their north of Tampa community.

There, she broached the idea of naming them Liberty Middle School and Freedom High School. Frontrunners for those honors had been former principal Tom Dessy for the middle school, and J. Crockett Farnell for the high school. Farnell had the backing of some of Tampa's most powerful figures.

"It's really my son who brought it to my attention," Lohn said. "What more honorable thing can we do than to chose those names for those schools?"

New Tampa education activist Terri Wolford had come prepared to pitch several names, but was instantly won over by the idea.

"That was then and this is now," Wolford told the board. "I believe that the names Liberty Middle School and Freedom High School will project this feeling of camaraderie for years to come. At this time in our history this is what we think is right."

The School Board members agreed. Liberty Middle School received a majority of votes on the first ballot. Freedom and Farnell both received votes on a first ballot, but neither had enough to win approval. Freedom won on the second ballot.

Before that moment, the late J. Crockett Farnell appeared to have the edge. Farnell, a legendary football coach at Hillsborough High School who was superintendent of schools for 17 years in the 1950s and 1960s, was championed by a massive campaign of former students, players and colleagues. Backed by former Tampa Mayor Bill Poe, the 18-month effort had garnered more than 1,000 supporters. The only mark against the innovative educator was a 1967 embezzlement conviction that was later overturned on appeal.

"Crocket was shabbily treated by this community for many years," former teacher and Board of Regents member Dennis Ross told the board. "We must now set the record straight and recognize this man's greatness and his contribution to our society."

After the vote, Poe said Farnell didn't have a chance against Liberty and Freedom.

"I think this was the right time (for Farnell), and I think the board did the wrong thing," Poe said. "I don't know how he can beat Liberty. I think it's a cheap way of getting off the hook."

Farnell's son, Crockett Farnell, is a Pinellas-Pasco circuit judge.

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