The Josh Innes Show - Midland Legacy Is Now Midland Lee..Again

Episode Date: August 14, 2025

Midland Legacy High School, which was once Robert E. Lee High School, will now be Midland Lee again. I have no issue with schools being named after Civil War era people. It may seem dumb in some cases...but the idea of it doesn't bother me. What bothers me is cratering to political pressure every 4 years. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Here's a story I find interesting. Headline reads, Midland ISD votes four to three in favor of changing Legacy High School to Lehigh, reversing course five years later. For both the high school and freshman school, this will take effect in the 2026, 2027 school year. This is out of Midland. Was Midland Lee one of the schools in, it had to have been, one of the schools in Friday Night Lights? That seems to be right. There was Midland Lee in like Odessa and Odessa and Odessa Permian. and all that.

Well, in Midland, the story is that they're going to change this school name back to Lees High School, which is Robert E. Lee High School, right? That would be what this is, right? Let's play a couple commercials, and let's dig into this. So for what it's worth, when I was growing up, there was a Robert E. Lee High School in Baton Rouge. They were the Lehigh Rebels. It is where Randy Jackson of American Idol fame went to high school. and somewhere like 20-something years ago maybe, it may have been when I was still in high school.

They changed the name from the Lehigh rebels to the Lehigh Patriots, which is actually hysterical that they still call the school Lehigh, yet they are the Lehigh Patriots, even though the school is named after Robert E. Lee, who is not a patriot. He was factually a rebel, and they still call it Lehi. Like, the contradiction is great, but that's how this world works. people are always trying to change things and trying to make people happy and bend the knee and

count out of people and what you end up doing is looking stupid and we have an example of that with this story out of Midland let's read some of the details legacy high school and legacy freshmen are returning to Lee High School and Lee Freshman School the Midland Independent School district voted four to three in favor on Tuesday the decision came after a four-hour meeting and more than 50 public comments. It took four. Can you imagine the misery of sitting in a school board meeting or a school district meeting for four hours listening to 50 public comments about whether or not they should change the name of a school from Legacy High School back to Midland Lee High School?

What a tortured life you must lead. What a horrible experience that must be to sit in one of these meetings. Now, if you don't know, here's the back story about why the name changed. Well, I'm sure you can piece it together. But in 2020, Robert E. Lee High School was renamed a Legacy High School due to concerns over its association with the Confederate General who fought to preserve slavery during the Civil War. The name has remained a point of controversy dividing parents, students, and teachers, and alumni. Quote, this is not a Confederacy thing or a race thing. It's about family.

This is about history. 61 years of tradition, athletes and academics, Carrie McNeil and alumna who spoke in favor of restoring the name. Okay, be that as it may, you know you still went to the high school, right? Like, you know where you went to school. So, like, I guess I try to put myself in that position, right? Like, you know you went to Midland Lee High School and you didn't go to Legacy High School. Actually, in Baton Rouge, there was another school that changed names too. There was a school called Bishop Sullivan, and it was a religious school, and I want to say something happened.

There was some sort of scandal, some sort of sex thing, and they had to change the name to, like, St. Michael the Archangel, I think is what they changed it to. So in Baton Rouge, I saw two name changes, one over Didlan, I think, and the other was over, you know, Robert Elite. Others, however, strongly opposed the change. I was appalled to know that they had romanticized something horrible for so many of our nation. citizens, said Sue Roseberry, a Midland resident. I'm glad our school board took the bull by the horns and changed the name to Legacy. Here's the issue I have with this. You clearly changed the name back in 2020 because you felt some sort of pressure and it was a different era and it was George Floyd and it was Rona and it was Biden and it was riots.

So you clearly couted in that environment, that political environment we were in. You couted to those people and you bent the knee and you said, nope, we're going to change it because you're right. It's absolutely offensive, right? That would have been around the same time, too, that I was on 97-5 in Houston. And we were talking about buildings having their names changed at Clemson and other stuff, right? So you made the decision, which I can live with your decision. You came out and you said, you know what? We're not going to call this Robert E. Lee High School anymore because we view it as insensitive to people.

And in this highly divided racial time and people full of tension, in this moment in time, we have decided to change the name from Robert E. Lee, which we do understand could be considered offensive to some because Robert E. Lee was a general of the Confederate Army. And the Confederate Army was fighting against the Union. And while not the only thing they were concerned about was slavery, slavery was in fact a huge part of why they wanted to preserve. the state's rights, et cetera. We understand why it's offensive. And because of that, we are going to revert or not revert. We're going to change the name from Lehigh to Legacy High School. And if that was your choice and the people voted on it and that was the change that was made, then I am okay with that.

The people voted. The people decided to do it. Did they count out to the racial tensions of 2020? Yes, but they made the decision. That was their choice and they did it. The issue I have is not with a school being called Robert E. Lee High School, despite the fact that, hey, Robert E. Lee, you fucking lost. But it's not the fact that it's named after the Confederate General, that any school is named after a Confederate general, or that there are Confederate statues or whatever, right? Look, are they homages and are they honoring losers?

Yes, those people got their asses kicked and they lost. So you are celebrating someone who lost. Fine. That is reality. but my issue is now because we're it's funny how this works because in the Biden era everybody's scared shitless so they're changing names of shit and changing names of buildings and tearing down statues now that we've shifted into the Trump era where Trump's main focus has seemed to be can we change the name back to Indians can we do that listen you don't get a stadium until we're the Redskins again oh we're UFC and on the lawn of the White House like these are the things this guy focuses on on a lot of shit that does not matter. But since now we've emboldened these people, now their side is emboldened.

Now they're fighting to get the names changed of shit. So the school board now bends the need for these people, and now it's back to Midland Lee. Again, I'm not offended by the idea that a school is called Lee High School. We played against Lee High School when I was in school. There are a lot of Lee High Schools. They exist.

I'm not offended by that. I'm not offended by Confederate statues. I'm not, you know, by buildings named after Confederate people or people who own slaves, I don't give a fuck. Could I see where some people might view that as, oh, that's kind of fucked up? Sure. Certainly, if you are building new statues or putting up new monuments to these people, knowing what we know now, it would certainly be fucked up.

And this kind of falls into the fucked up category. Why is it in the newly fucked up category? Because you've acknowledged five years ago that you find the name offensive, and that's why you changed it. So now, five years later, it's like, you know, we've got some new info. We got some new intel on Robert E. Lee, and it turns out, hey, the guy wasn't so fucking bad. So let's go back to Robert E. Lee. It is stupid.

And it's one of those things when I talk about Trump a lot, about how Trump does shit that doesn't help his cause, right? Like, hey, we should have fewer federal holidays. People want to work. They want to work. And we get that on what? Juneteenth. Like, it's just stupid shit that this guy does. And then people, it trickles down.

It's funny how the people just kind of follow the vibe of the leader. Five years ago, it was pusified Biden, everybody's afraid of their own shadow, George Floyd, Deshikis, white people taking a fucking knee, cities burning down, therefore Robert Ely is offensive. Now it's the era of Trump and bring back the Indians and why don't we use the N word anymore? I think we should, I think it should come back. Like, this is the world we're in now. So now people are like, you know what, let's change the school's back. It just looks ridiculous. The special meeting held at Bowie Fine Arts Academy drew hundreds of attendees.

The latest push to revert the name came from District 7 trustee Josh Gwynn, who publicly called for the item to be placed on the agenda in a Facebook post on July 4th. Patriotism! Boy, these fucking guys are fucking phenomenal. Hold on. This is phenomenal. So that was on July 4th. Gwen said restoring the Midlandly name would honor the West Texas tradition and what he described as a patriotic legacy.

Sir, what the actual fuck are you talking about? Guys, we got a guy who represented the group that was trying to take down the union. They were trying to take it down. They wanted to break it up. So that guy is the patriot. Dogs and cats living together massive. hysteria. The proposal is reignited to what some are calling one of the most polarizing debates in Midland ISD history. Opponents of the change argue that the district should

focus on more pressing issues such as budget deficits and staffing goods. And that is always the case when somebody suggests a change. Everybody then goes to, don't we have more important things to worry about? But in this case, obviously you do. Quote, this is not where the money needs to go. They are 41 million in the whole, said Jeremy Pitts, a Midland resident. I would like the board members to explain to the teachers they let go why this is more important than their position. Well, is this going to cost $41 million or like

how much does it cost to change the name of a school? Like, oh, our name has changed now. Let's fix the sign on the building. Like, I don't understand the correlation. Like, I love when people make false correlations. Like, oh, you want to change the name? Tell that to the people. You fired. Well, okay, how did that impact

them? Like, when they changed the name back to Midland Lee, is this going to be some sort of situation now where they changed the name back to Midland Lee, and it cost them hundreds of millions of dollars to do that? It's an honest question, but I seriously doubt that's the case. Despite the divide, many in the room shared a common sentiment, a deep love for the school, its academic legacy, and its award-winning athletic programs. The name Midland-Lee High School and Midland-Lee Freshmen will take effect in 2026 and 27.

But, like, think about this, again, until we started really focusing on who schools are named after, no one cared, I don't think anybody thought of these things. Like, I don't know if Randy Jackson, and I don't want to speak for Randy Jackson of American Idol, but I find it hard to believe that when Randy Jackson was going to school in Baton Rouge at Lee High School, like, every day he's like, I can't believe we're going to school in a place named after Robert E. Lee. I don't know that he gave a shit or that he cared. I truly don't. But the problem is once you start drawing attention to this kind of stuff, that's all people can think about.

That's like why when you make your sex, your gender, your race, the talking point, that's all people can focus on. and it's the only thing that matters to people. And that's where we are in a situation like this, where, like, I don't think most people going into a school would have even thought, like, oh, I'm at Lee High School. Oh, it's Robert E. Lee High School. Okay, fine. Now what you end up with is that you change the name back and forth,

and now that's all people can think about. So, like, again, not trying to be a pussy here, but imagine you're some sort of black person. You're a black person that goes into a school now, school year, 2026, 2027. You go into Robert E. Lee High School. All you will be thinking about is the fact that you are going to a school that is named after a dude who was a general in the civil war, who was fighting for the side who, whether you believe what part of history you believe or not, was fighting for the rights of people to continue holding on to your ancestors as slaves. How would you not think of that when you go to school every day?

How would that thought not cross your mind and how would you not feel somewhat inferior or so? Like, how would you not feel that? And now that it's all we think about, what other option do you have but to walk in there and be like, holy shit, I'm in a school that not only was it already named after Robert E Lee, a group of people in 2025 made the decision to change it in 2025, A, that that was important enough to have a meeting over, B, that four out of seven people said yes. think about that again multiple things can be true not everything is partisan not everything is oh I'm right wing oh I'm left wing so this is how it should be some things are are balanced I am a balanced person

I can tell you that I'm not offended by the name Robert Lee High School I'm offended by the idea that you decided that it was offensive enough to change and you did and now you are changing it back and it makes you look honest to God it makes you look like racist peckerheads and makes you look like dipsets. That's how you look today. Congratulations.