RIVER FALLS, Wis. – Facebook hecklers convinced a small Wisconsin school district to rename its brand new middle school fitness center by pointing out it could possibly be construed as racist.

The School District of River Falls recently unveiled the “Roger T. White Pride Fitness Room as presented by RCU” at Meyer Middle School, a $100,000 facility built with generous donations from the 1949 River Falls High School alum Robert T. White and Royal Credit Union, the River Falls Journal reports.

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“I didn’t know Roger White personally, but he was an outstanding athlete that embodies all the great principles of fitness and athletics. We couldn’t have had a better choice,” said Chuck Eaton, member of the Pride Fitness committee that completed the project solely on private donations. “And Royal Credit Union provided such great support in a large donation, we wanted to honor it too in the naming.”

“As far as the long name goes,” the Journal reports, “Eaton speculates it will likely be shortened to the White Pride Fitness Room — a name, he says, attached to a good role model for the kids who use the room.”

Folks on Facebook, apparently, were more interested in political correctness than in honor.

“This is terrible. White Pride? Which culturally insensitive committee let this slide?” Jewelz MacGruder posted, Fox 9 reports. “So much for building an inclusive community. As an RF native, I can’t begin to say how disappointed I am.”

“Please tell me this an article from The Onion,” Alice Lasar Olson posted.

“The ‘White Pride fitness center?’ Wow. So disappointing, Fiver Falls,” Nickki Torres added.

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The heckling compelled district officials to rename the fitness room to appease its critics.

The district issued a statement, posted to Fox 9:

The River Falls School District has a demonstrated commitment to character education and takes seriously the responsibility to be inclusive and respectful of all people and groups of people. Any suggestion of racism, discrimination, or cultural insensitivity in the fitness room’s title was wholly inadvertent.  To prevent any future misunderstanding, the fitness center will be named and referred to as the “Roger T. White Wildcat Fitness Room or the Roger T. White – Fitness Room as Presented by RCU. …

To be clear, this “room name” has never been nor will it ever be called, “The White Pride Room”. We can see and understand how the new name, “Roger T. White – Pride Fitness Room” could be viewed by some people as implying “White Pride”.  Clearly that was never the “intent” of the community group, the White family, RCU, nor of the school district. 

Now, the complaints are coming from both sides.

“I’m so disappointed in our school district for changing this. Unbelievable,” Shana Jo Castano posted to Facebook. “For someone who has kids that will be attending this school next year, I’m appalled at this charade.”

“I think it’s racist and bigoted to have a hateful last name such as White. The last name Black is acceptable but the last name White is completely unacceptable and there needs to be some sensitivity awareness involved when it comes to people deciding to keep their last name,” Karl Pemberton wrote.

“What a load of crap! It is time to pull up your big boy or girl pants and stop being offended by everything even if it is not offensive!” Dennis Young wrote.

“Good move! Words are important. I am glad they did not take Mr. Roger T White’s name out of it. But the White Pride would absolutely have been used by some kids,” John Ellison posted.

“How about this. We re-name “The Black Hills” to “The Neutral Hills”, and rename “The White House”, to “The President’s House”. Or I say do away with the words black, white, pride, win, best, exceptional. Oh, hell, let’s just quit talking to each other and writing anything. We can just look at each other,” Bill O’Connor added.