Fueled by recent social justice efforts, several Vermont groups are pushing school boards to get rid of discriminatory mascots once and for all.
But other residents — particularly those who attended the schools in question — relate those mascots to fond memories and town pride, and want to keep things the way they are.
These divisive conversations here in Vermont and across the nation are putting additional pressure on schools as officials also cope with the Covid-19 pandemic.
Even so, activists say the time to address discriminatory mascots is now, while public awareness of unfair treatment of Black people, following the death of George Floyd at police hands in Minneapolis and other cases, have spurred protests nationwide.
Their efforts are bolstered by the Vermont Principals’ Association, which last month encouraged schools to replace mascots that do not represent all students.
“They should not perpetuate divisive stereotypes and contribute to the ongoing marginalization, erasure, and harm to BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and people of color) communities,” the statement reads. “Any mascot, nickname, symbol, or logo that has marginalizing, racist, or exclusionary elements should be replaced to demonstrate what it means to be an inclusive, welcoming, and strong community.”
Jay Nichols, executive director of the Vermont Principals’ Association, said a number of individuals had asked whether the organization had taken a position on the issue. He took the question to the VPA executive council, made up of 15 school leaders from across the state.
“People were like, you know what, with everything that’s going on in the world, we think we should have some type of statement on mascots,” Nichols said.
Nichols, a longtime school administrator, hopes the statement will provide a framework for school boards and residents to begin the conversation about changing mascots and alleviate local divisions.
“If you’ve got a number of kids in a school who feel like they’re excluded, like they’re not part of it for some reason, you want to try and break down those barriers any way you can,” Nichols said. “The bottom line is, if it’s a mascot that’s really exclusionary … we think you should revisit it.”
The Rutland Raiders
Several efforts to change mascots were already underway when the association issued the statement in late August.
An organized group of students, alumni and teachers has been lobbying to change Rutland High School’s nickname, the Rutland Raiders, and its arrowhead logo, since the spring.
The name was originally the Red Raiders and referred to Native American “raiders” who were considered violent. The nickname, which was changed some years ago, was conceived by Rutland Herald sportswriters in the 1930s who compounded the stereotype through the use of words such as “Redskins” and “scalping” to describe the feats of high school athletes. The mascot’s image formerly featured a Native American wearing a headdress.
On Aug. 2, Rachel Black, a Rutland High School graduate, launched an Instagram discussion about changing the mascot. She wrote about the Herald’s use of language, and wrote that “the idea of native people as violent savages was simultaneously being used to justify the eugenics project in Vermont that forcibly sterilized native women in order to ‘breed a better Vermonter.’ Native people were seen as a threat to white settlers in the state that would eventually be eradicated.”
By noon the next day, Black was flooded with support from Rutland residents who wanted to change the mascot.
The group of alumni, teachers, faculty, staff and residents is called Change the Rutland Mascot, and its campaign has included a petition, opinion columns in local media outlets, and, most recently, a presentation to the Rutland City Board of School Commissioners. The school board has invited the public to comment on the mascot change at a meeting Oct. 6.
A petition in opposition has garnered more than 2,000 signatures.
“I really wasn’t expecting as much opposition as we’ve received,” Black said.
Other states take up the issue
Many of the state’s mascot discussions take place online, with pro and con groups lobbing petitions in the direction of school boards. Watching the back-and-forth, some wonder whether the conversation should be guided by policy at the state level.
Jill Steigerwald, a member of Change the Rutland Mascot who graduated from Rutland High School in 2003, has been researching policy precedents set by other states. Illinois, Maine, Massachusetts, Oregon, Washington and Wisconsin have had state-level discussions about mascots that portray indigenous symbols, though not all have resulted in policy changes.
In Maine, the Legislature unanimously passed a bill to ban Native American mascots in public schools, and Gov. Janet Mills signed it into law in May 2019.
Protests in front of the Massachusetts Statehouse this summer called for an end to the use of indigenous mascots at public schools, along with changing the state’s seal, which features Native American imagery. Several schools in Massachusetts have recently retired Native American mascots.
A bill, later sidelined by Covid-19, was introduced in the Illinois legislature in February that would require schools to gain permission from local tribes before using symbols in official tournaments, among other requirements.
“I have my eyes and ears open on that stuff,” Steigerwald said.
She’s also exploring mascot conversations with communities around the state, though she said efforts to organize are still early.
“If I care about Rutland’s choices,” she said, “and I care about Vermont as a whole, knowing that there are other schools that could change and make these decisions in Vermont — it’s potentially worth looking into pathways to the state level.”
The Colonels
Several school boards will take up the topic in October, and recent petitions in other communities are pressing administrators to question their mascots.
In Vermont’s southeast corner, Brattleboro Union High School has been arguing for years about whether to change its name from the Colonels. The mascot’s former image, which depicted a plantation owner and was nearly identical to the University of Mississippi’s mascot, was retired during the 2003-04 school year, but “Colonels” lingers.
In a 2010 article for Deadspin, Brattleboro alumna Emma Carmichael drew a link between the mascot and behavior at the school.
“In 1998, the school banned bonfires at our pep rallies because someone had dangled an effigy of a Black doll above the flames, and soon after that, a letter to the local newspaper pointed out that it was, well, kind of odd that our football team’s rallying cry was ‘Pride of the South,’” the article reads.
A petition called Change the Racist Colonel states that the name’s links are too direct to ignore, and any attempt to re-link the mascot to other renowned colonels — Col. William Brattle, for example, for whom the town is named — would not go far enough. The petition also notes that Brattle was “gifted a large sum of Abenaki land” and owned at least one slave.
The petition has gained 1,300 signatures, and a counter-petition, called Save the Name Colonels” has nearly as many.
Preoccupied with safely reopening schools amid the Covid-19 pandemic, the Windham Southeast School Board chair said recently he doesn’t expect to have the discussion “for a good, long time.”
The Danville Indians
In Danville, the school board’s Oct. 6 agenda invites the public to comment on the district’s mascot name, the Indians. The nickname has caused “substantial concern within the school” over the last year, the board said, spurred along by the VPA’s statement.
“A forum for a discussion of the pros and cons of a name change and a possible name change are expected to be set then or shortly thereafter,” the agenda reads.
Residents of Chester, home to Green Mountain Union High School, are circulating a petition for Gov. Phil Scott to ban all Native American mascots, including their own: the Chieftains. The mascot logo, and the athletic department’s Twitter account, feature a Native American wearing a headdress.
“Great news!” an organizer wrote on a connected Facebook page last month. “The VT Principals’ Association released a letter to all VT high schools recommending that they should change their insensitive mascots. Will GMUHS listen?”
Randolph Union High School’s mascot, the Galloping Ghosts, was depicted in a mural at the school’s fieldhouse as a ghost riding a horse. The image closely resembled a Klu Klux Klan rider.
Superintendent Layne Millington feared that a public conversation about the mural would result in community division. So, in February, he “cut to the end” and made the decision himself, sending a letter detailing his decision to the community. While the mascot name remains, the mural was repainted the following weekend.
“There are few things that can tear a school community apart like fighting over the change of a mascot,” his letter reads.
It’s up to the board
In Rutland City, a member of the Board of Alderman recently suggested that voters decide on Town Meeting Day in March whether to change the Rutland Raider mascot.
However, in 2017, the Vermont Supreme Court ruled that the school board, not the electorate, holds the power to choose a mascot. In that case, residents of South Burlington were fighting the school board’s decision to change the mascot from the Rebels, a reference to the Confederacy, to the Wolves.
Rutland Alderman Tom DePoy, a Rutland High graduate, said the vote in Rutland would be purely advisory, but could instruct the school board’s decision. He believes voters would oppose changing the name.
DePoy called other requests, such as acknowledging before sporting events that the land once belonged to Abenaki people, were “ludicrous” and “radical.” In an interview, he listed reasons to be proud of the school and its athletics program, and said he believes students and alumni who have pushed the issue have been swayed by a small group of teachers with an agenda.
“The Raiders symbol, I think, depicts the toughness and determination that we have here,” he said, later adding, “I think the arrowhead is totally appropriate. It shows a fierce competitiveness.”
Alderwoman Lisa Ryan, who played basketball, lacrosse and field hockey at Rutland High before graduating in 2007, thinks the school board is responsible for the decision.
“It’s just a new way of thinking, and it makes sense,” Ryan said. “Why would we want to be harmful to a certain group of people? I’m a Rutland Raider. I went to Rutland City public schools. Of course, there’s an identity attached to that. But learning the way it has been harmful to people — and to people who are minorities — it has no place anymore.”
Black, who began the campaign, identifies as a woman of color, and hopes changing the mascot may make other people of color feel included in the community.
“Rutland is a really wonderful place to grow up,” she said. “But I have to say, I think it’s challenging being a person of color and living in a white community. Representation is really important.”
Rebels to Wolves
Despite conflict that roiled the community, South Burlington High School’s mascot changed from the Rebels to the Wolves in the spring of 2017, and the mascot is no longer a main talking point at the school.
Mike Jabour, who graduated from South Burlington High in 2005, became the director of student activities in the fall of 2017, just after the name was changed.
“Getting people excited to be a ‘wolf,’ that was my job,” he said.
He said the school completely rebranded, and students sat to watch games in a section called “the den.” Student involvement was key to the transition, Jabour said — students voted on the new name. If he could give any advice to other schools in the heat of their discussions, it would be: Involve the students.
“That’s where the buy-in came from, is their involvement,” he said. “Because at the end of the day, they’re the ones that are going to be wearing the uniforms, they’re the ones who are going to be competing.”
Though Jabour wasn’t part of the process that changed the mascot, he saw students express relief that the conflict was over, and that there was a new mascot, chosen by students, that seemed to represent everyone.
“There’s hardly any mention of it now,” he said. “We’ve got a cool logo, we’ve got a cool name. People want to have that logo on their shirt, or a patch or a sticker. Now we officially have a mascot we can bring to games, that we can get behind.”