March 17, 2015 District retires Redskins mascot amid boycott

      Lancaster NY - A western New York school district will do away with its Redskins mascot and nickname after other districts in the region turned up the pressure by boycotting games because of it.

      The Lancaster Central School Board voted to retire the longtime symbol.. during a special session called after three districts with sizable numbers of Native American students canceled lacrosse matches. 

      A spokesman for the Oneida Indian Nation of central New York, which is involved in the NFL campaign, said districts that have replaced their mascots, including neighboring Cooperstown, have not seen a decline in school spirit.

      “Not only did the school make a powerful statement to the Native American community that they no longer wanted to use a term that is a dictionary-defined slur against native people,” spokesman Joel Barkin said. “But it made a statement to the kids in that school to be self-aware and have empathy and think about how the actions that you are engaging in affect other people outside of yourself.”

      The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 2001 called for an end to the use of Native American images and team names by non-Native schools, saying the portrayals “encourage biases and prejudices that have a negative effect on contemporary Indian people.”

      The American Psychological Association took a similar stance in 2005, citing harmful effects “on the social identity development and self-esteem of American Indian young people.”

      Said board member Michael Sage, “The students in this generation and those to follow need a new tradition.”   

2015 March 17, Tulare Advance Register