This Friday, March 27, Van Nuys High School students will have the day off. The reason is Cesar Chavez Day. But this year, the man behind the holiday has been accused of sexually abusing girls and women for decades, and LAUSD is scrambling to decide what comes next.

On March 18, the New York Times published a five-year investigation that found three women accused the late Cesar Chavez of sexual abuse spanning decades. Two said the abuse began when they were 12 and 13. Chavez co-founded the United Farm Workers union in the 1960s and died in 1993.

The allegations hit close to home for the Los Angeles Unified School District, where Chavez’s name is on schools, streets and a holiday that gives students this Friday off. On Tuesday, the LAUSD board voted unanimously to rename the schools and rebrand the holiday as Farmworkers Day, according to LAist.

For some Van Nuys students, the news changed the way they think about Chaves, a figure they were taught to admire, including freshman Leslie Cristobal, who learned about the labor leader in eighth grade.

“I learned he was an activist for farm worker rights,” Cristobal said. “They showed us that he was a role model. They talked a lot about him and praised him.”

When the allegations surfaced, Cristobal said she didn’t believe them at first.

I was really shocked because I thought there was no way that this was true,” Cristobal said. “Something like this coming out this late” made the news feel unreal, she said.

Friday’s holiday will still happen. Acting Superintendent Andres Chait confirmed that March 27 will remain a day off. But the district has gone much further than keeping the calendar intact.

On Tuesday, the board voted unanimously to rename Cesar Chavez Learning Academies in San Fernando and Cesar Chavez Elementary School in El Sereno, according to LAist. The resolution, introduced by board members Kelly Gonez and Rocio Rivas, also calls for removing Chavez’s image from school murals and rebranding the March 31 holiday as Farmworkers Day.

The same board had unanimously passed a resolution on March 10 calling Chavez “a true American hero,” just eight days before the New York Times investigation was published, according to LAist.

At Van Nuys High School, some teachers had already stopped teaching about Chavez before the allegations surfaced, including ELD teacher Christian Valenzuela.

“I have chosen not to teach about him,” Valenzuela said. “Whenever I teach about the farm worker movement I usually teach about the Filipino farmworkers because they were usually a big part of it and they never get taught about.”

Even before the allegations, Valenzuela said his understanding of Chavez was complicated.

“My personal views on him were already controversial. When I learned about him at CSUN I learned that he was very anti-illegal immigration,” Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela said the school could use the moment to refocus on the workers themselves.

“Most of the fruit we give out for lunch is picked by farmworkers,” Valenzuela said. “Acknowledging and talking about the farmworker movement so that these allegations don’t overshadow the work that has been made and still needs to be done.”

Not everyone thinks the answer is to stop teaching about Chavez. Social studies department chair Mr. Jacob Ferrin said the allegations change how he teaches, but not whether he does.

“I don’t honor George Washington, I still teach about George Washington,” Ferrin said. “I don’t think you can teach about the farmworkers movement without Cesar Chavez. He was there, he was important, he was the face. I don’t need to honor him while I do so, though.”

Ferrin said the allegations also open a conversation about how women in social justice movements have often been sidelined. He plans to teach the farmworker movement “intersectionally” going forward, connecting the Chavez accusations to patterns of abuse and silence in other movements.

“We can honor the people who did the work, we can honor the people who went on strike, we can honor the people who boycotted the grapes,” Ferrin said. “Can I teach farmworkers without Cesar Chavez? I don’t think I can. But I also can’t ignore the horrible things he did.”

When students return from spring break on April 6, the schools that carry Chavez’s name will already be searching for new ones. The renaming process is expected to be finished by fall 2026.

“Every time you throw an orange at somebody in the quad, just recognize that somebody picked that,” Valenzuela said. “And somebody got paid pennies to do that work.”