I've seen a lot of real names of schools, towns and businesses used in stories. Look at Julie O's universe stories as an example. She uses several real places in both San Diego and in the North East, including many stories based in and around Penn State University.

Also think about how many names of places like schools are replicated throughout the country. How many Washington Elementary schools, or Central High Schools actually Exist in the United States?

So I wouldn't worry too much about using real names of places unless you are actually affiliated with or work at the place in question.

Now slogans on the other hand can be copywritten, so best to not use any school motto, fight song, etc.

I went to the source:

Amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole: Under this factor, courts look at both the quantity and quality of the copyrighted material that was used. If the use includes a large portion of the copyrighted work, fair use is less likely to be found; if the use employs only a small amount of copyrighted material, fair use is more likely. That said, some courts have found use of an entire work to be fair under certain circumstances. And in other contexts, using even a small amount of a copyrighted work was determined not to be fair because the selection was an important part—or the “heart”—of the work.

Your usage may fall under this area as it's not using the copyrighted material. It's like so many movies and TV shows using the major colleges as the destinations for students, they mention the school and there are usually exterior shots, but the school isn't harmed by the minor usage of it as the school isn't the focus and as long as the school isn't looked down upon or put into a bad light there is little it can do against you.

If it helps, there are no copyrights on names. None, zip, zero, zilch. You're looking in the wrong direction.

What they have are TRADEMARKS. The word Coca, and the word Cola, for example, are not trademarked or protected. However, the word Coca-Cola (exactly like that), and the swoosh logo are trademarked. However, Coca Cola isn't trademarked. If someone made a cocaine based soda again, then they could call it 'coca cola' and they'd be okay, as long as their name didn't _look_ like Coca-Cola's.

So, the main thing you have to worry about is that you use those names in ways that do not adversely affect their reputation. For example, if you wanted to say that a character used a Band-Aid, you can do that. if you say that they _didn't_ use Band-Aids because they always fell off, that would be a no-no. (Band-Aid is a trademark of the Johnson & Johnson corporation).

The simple way to put it is this.

1) Are you using a trademark in a way that makes the trademark look bad?
2) Are you using the trademark to make money directly off of the trademark?

If either is 'yes', then you need to not do it. If the answer is 'no' to both, you're fine. (You can have someone working at a Domino's Pizza, going to school at Hahvad, and vacationing at DisneyLand, with no problems. Have that person getting drunk with Mickey Mouse, and you're in trouble.)

Relatively recently (a few months ago) there was a breakdown on YouTube by a guy that calls himself 'youtubelaw', about a dispute with a Domino's Pizza franchisee and a person who salvaged a Domino's DXP - complete with all logos and the warming oven. It's good to listen to, because it gives a reasonably succinct explanation of how trademark applies and why.