Cypress : Students Are Denied a McAuliffe Memorial

To honor the teacher-astronaut who died with the six other Challenger crew members in January, students of A. E. Arnold school asked city officials to rename Willow Park the Christa McAuliffe Park.

But acting on a recommendation from the Cypress Recreation and Community Services Commission, the City Council earlier this week decided to turn down the request.

Instead, the officials will consider a city memorial to honor all seven crew members. Meanwhile, council members suggested that education officials consider naming a school, an athletic field or a school gymnasium after the New Hampshire schoolteacher.

“(The council) felt that as a teacher, if they were going to honor her memory, it shouldn’t be a park--but a school, a library or something along those lines,” Cypress Assistant City Manager Dave Barrett said.

Marvin DeCarlo, Cypress Recreation and Parks district director, said the city’s general policy is to name local parks after trees. Of Cypress’ 16 parks, only four carry the names of former prominent Cypress citizens who were involved in the development of the city’s park system. And those four names also include the name of a tree, such as Arnold-Cypress and Baroldi-Sycamore.

A report to the council stated: “It is the commission’s recommendation that the request be deferred back to Arnold School with their comments that they recognize that seven people died in the tragedy and that it would be inappropriate to name the park after one individual . . . . “

The council Monday night asked its staff to bring back suggestions for a memorial to the Challenger astronauts within 90 days.

Mayor Otto Lacayo said that he would prefer for the school to press on with the project to honor McAuliffe.

In a petition to the city, 474 students and teachers of the elementary school affixed their signatures to the request to rename Willow Park after McAuliffe, DeCarlo said. Noting the support for a tribute to McAuliffe, the mayor said that the council’s leaning toward a tribute for the entire shuttle crew would “take the thunder away from these kids.”