Tom Benjey's Weblog

The Associated Press reports that Southern York County School District reinstated Susquehannock High School’s logo and team names back to what they had been prior to April 2021. This caught my attention because York County abuts the county I live in a few miles from my house.

The 2021 board voted 7-2 to cease using the logo but would continue using “Susquehannock” as the Glen Rock, Pennsylvania school’s name and “Warriors” as the teams’ name. Earlier, an on-line survey received 3,300+ responses of which 80% did not want the mascot to change. In a special meeting held the month before the vote, Ian Record of the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) spoke, saying the mascot perpetuated racist stereotypes with war-like depictions. The board waited until the district’s diversity committee returned its research on the matter to vote. Those voting to retire the logo considered it racist.

Last year, five new school board members, who used the retired logo on their campaign literature, were elected to the board in November 2023. The outgoing board president did not run for reelection. The new board immediately dealt with the logo issue when it took over in January 2024 by placing the issue on their meeting agenda. The board debated reinstating the logo for a considerable time before residents voiced their opinions in a two-hour public comment period. The Native American Guardian’s Association (NAGA), whose motto is “Educate NOT Eradicate,” made an hour-long presentation explaining why this group of American Indians lobbies against the removal of Indian mascots.

About four hours after the meeting started, board members voted 7-2 to reinstate the logo. More information about NAGA can be found at: https://www.nagaeducation.org/

Tags: NAGA, Susquehannock

This entry was posted on January 20, 2024 at 3:05 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.