Identity elements
Reference code
Name and location of repository
Level of description
Item
Title
D21939-2
Date(s)
- 1946-04-17 (Creation)
Extent
Name of creator
Content and structure elements
Scope and content
Dissension was in the air on April 17, 1946, when approximately 50 students from Robert Gray Jr. High took to the streets to protest what they termed the "firing" of physical education teacher Victor Kovack by Principal Carroll A. Payne. The protest continued for 3 days, gathering up to 150 students demanding the removal of Principal Payne. When police forced the picketers from in front of the building, they paraded through the streets of South Tacoma. Kovack and Principal Payne had disagreed over the use of corporal punishment at the school, with Kovack opposing it. Students were advised that Mr. Kovack had been transferred, not fired, by the school district. After an investigation by the school board into the alleged physical punishments, Principal Payne was exonerated, but the regulations concerning corporal punishment in the schools were more clearly defined and published. (T.Times 4/18/1946, pg. 1)
Gray Junior High School (Tacoma); Public schools--Tacoma--1940-1950; Student movements--Tacoma--1940-1950; Demonstrations--Tacoma--1940-1950; Strikes;