Pekin Community High School District 303


Pekin Community High School District 303 is a school district in Pekin, Illinois. It operates one high school, Pekin Community High School. the school has 1,200 students. The campus includes its principal campus buildings totaling of space; these buildings house 133 classrooms, the 600 seat F.M. Peterson Theater, two gymnasiums, a natatorium, and several computer labs.

Mascot Controversy

From the high school's founding until the 1981 school year, the football team was officially named the "Pekin Chinks", represented by a red dragon logo, done in part to represent the town of Pekin's relation to the Chinese city of Peking. Understandably, this name generated controversy for its use of a racial slur. In 1974, a vote was conducted within the student body to change the name, and the vote ended in a landslide victory for "chinks" at 1,034 votes to 182. A second vote received similar results. In 1980, after a wealth of controversy, the school board forced a name change to "Pekin Dragons"; a name that has stayed to the present. To this day, graduates from the pre-dragon era of the district have expressed a desire for the original name to return.