Connecticut Town Brings Back Native American Mascot After Its Removal Despite Student Pleas

A Connecticut high school is drawing flak after it reinstated its longtime mascot just six months after it was removed amid claims the “Redmen” name and logo was offensive to Native Americans.

The change was short-lived, however, as new members took control of the school board in November and on Wednesday reinstated the Redmen mascot in a 5-4 vote during a board meeting, according to theHartford Courant. The Red Hawks mascot was previously removed during a meeting in December.

The board also reportedly said it hopes to update the school’s logo so as not to be offensive to Native Americans, and that there were discussions about teaching students about Native American heritage.

NBC Connecticut

Last week’s five-hour meeting was reportedly a heated one, and drew arguments both from those who claimed the Redmen name was offensive and racist, and from those who said the word was actually a way to honor Native Americans,NBC affiliate WVITreported.

“I recognize there have been many Native Americans who have voiced those concerns. But I would say there is an equal amount of Native people who feel the opposite,” Republican board member Jason Muscara, who supported the Redmen name, said, according to theTimes.

According to theCourant, Muscara also argued that students who supported reinstating the mascot had reached out to him to say they felt as though they couldn’t publicly voice their opinions.

“If we’re going to talk about respecting our students and protecting our students and doing what’s best for our students, we need to respect the opinion of all of our students, not just the ones we agree with,” he said, while other Republican board members argued that it had “nothing to do with race.”

Still, the mascot — whose logo features the profile of a Native American man wearing a traditional headdress — has faced opposition previously from local tribes including the Mashantucket Pequot Tribal Nation and the Nipmuc Tribal Nation, who considered it racist, theCourantreported.

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Minutes from aDecember Killingly board meetingshow that Mark One Wolf of the Native American Guardians Association gave a presentation during a mascot discussion, and argued that Killingly could “come up with a better image that honors indigenous Native American tribes of the Killingly area.”

“We stopped letting it be about the students and doing what’s right,” board member Hoween Flexer said during last week’s meeting, according to theTimes. “And people can be mad about the process and people can be mad about losing whatever it is they think they’re losing. But the people who are directly impacted have spoken and we chose to not listen to them.”

The Redmen mascot has also faced opposition from teachers and students, like school athletic director Kevin Marcoux, who reportedly spoke at the meeting and said his team had become the “laughingstock” of Connecticut.

“We look racist,” Killingly senior Soudalath Souvanhnathan reportedly said. “This is not what I want our school to be known for. And all because people don’t want to let go of tradition. This has made Killingly a laughingstock.”

A spokesperson for the Killingly Board of Education did not immediately respond to PEOPLE’s request for comment.

source: people.com