The school board victory led to calls for a return of the Rebel nickname, and increased tensions within the school. On February 4, 1976, the school board held an unannounced election in which students were allowed to vote to either keep the name as "Raiders" or change the name back to "Rebels", if 3/4 of the student body approved. The students who preferred "Rebels" failed to secure a supermajority needed to win the ballot, by approximately 30 votes. However over 300 students had been absent on the day of the vote and they were not allowed to cast ballots. The next day, a peaceful protest to guarantee a vote to students who had not been allowed to vote the prior day degenerated into a riot which lasted over four hours in the school day. Four students were shot in the violence and twenty-six students were injured by rocks and debris while the calamity involved students smashing windows and trophy cases, as well as fighting with other students. It was estimated that three-quarters of the 2,523 students who attended Escambia High were involved in the riot. In the aftermath, crosses were burned on many school board members' yards, with one member, who was black, specifically targeted with a gunshot which went through his window. A human relations board member as well as a state legislator also had their homes torched. After all the retaliatory violence both at the school and in the community, members from the Florida Highway Patrol and numerous local law enforcement agencies combined to patrol the school until the end of the year. While waiting for a final determination from the courts and the school board; the student body selected the nickname "Patriots" to be used at school sponsored events during the 1976–77 academic year. In the spring of 1977, after hearing the courts final decision that "Rebels" was not to be reinstated the students chose "Gators" as the permanent nickname. On July 13, 1977 the Ku Klux Klan (KKK) petitioned the Escambia County School Board to hold a meeting at Escambia High School. The Escambia High School Student Body president, John Davis, successfully argued against the petition before the board. The board voted 5–1 against the petition.