St. Andrew's? What's That?

On All Saints' Day I cannot help but be reminded of a well-known song that I do not associate with the day itself:

Oh, when the saints go marching in
Oh, when the saints go marching in
Lord, how I want to be in that number
When the saints go marching in


What better song for a high school football team?

Once upon a time a public high school in Charleston County went by the confusing name of St. Andrew's Parish High School. Now that same area is saddled with a high school with the santized name of West Ashley.

Why this desire to discard local history in a city where so much effort is put into preserving local buildings? Why, even Byrnes Downs (named after a former governor and erroneously identified around town as "Byrnes Down") has become the subject of preservation!

Did it become too burdensome for St. Andrews' graduates to explain that they did not graduate from a Catholic high school? Was the Charleston County School District making sure that non-Episcopalians would not suffer the slings and arrows of Anglicanism that the school's name suggested? Or was CCSD ignorant too?

Probably only a small percentage of the area's residents realize that they live in one of the earliest Church of England parishes of the colonies, or even that the Lowcountry was originally divided into parishes, or even that Anglicanism was the official religion of the colony of South Carolina. It's history, too.

Also, the school's ring, apart from using St. Andrew's cross, featured a carving of a crossed pick and shovel. No, it did not purport to be educating ditch-diggers; the school was built on the site of an old phosphate mine. There were phosphate mines all over the area, in fact.

Oh, yes--THAT's why it's called Ashley PHOSPHATE Road!

"West Ashley"? Small wonder, despite its size, it's a pale shadow of the original in terms of education. Next thing you know, they'll take the "St. Andrew's" out of St. Andrew's Elementary.

I know. They can use the Russian solution--as done to St. Petersburg in Russia--change it to "Andrew's Elementary." Even better, name it after a local school board member. That should be memorable.