Alumni are urging Schoharie Central School to keep its Indian mascot, a connection to the past and the Schoharie Valley they argue is more important now than ever.
Kathleen Slater, Howard Conklin, Marion Jaqueway, and Hannah Meyer all told the school board that they’re proud of their mascot and the things it represents—though Ms. Meyer, who graduated in 2019, said there may also be a way to address the concerns of those who see it as racist.
The debate surfaces regularly; Mr. Conklin, an alum who’s had family at SCS since 1934, said it came up least four times while he was on the school board.
It roared back into discussion in June after civil rights activist and musician Bethany Yarrow—the daughter of Peter, Paul & Mary’s Peter Yarrow—called out the SCS mascot at a Black Lives Matter protest in Cobleskill’s Centre Park.
“They have an Indian as a mascot and it’s not even a Mohawk,” she said. “It’s a Plains Indian. You might as well have Snoopy up there.”
That’s ridiculous, Ms. Jaqueway, another former board member whose husband and children are SCS graduates, said.
In a year when students were robbed of even a normal graduation because of COVID, she said, “to get rid of the mascot would just rip the heart out of what we have left.
“With everything else that’s going on, can we just put this to rest? Kids don’t even know if they’re going back to school in the fall. They don’t wear it as a joke…this is their identity and they wear it with pride.”
Ms. Slater, a 1969 alum, echoed some of Ms. Jaqueway’s words, apologizing that it even needs to be addressed while they’re trying to reopen school.
“Obviously, however, someone thought that right now would be the best time, given the socially sensitive atmosphere in our nation. I beg to differ…”
Ms. Slater called the mascot “that of a dignified chief…a leader, strong, knowledgeable, dignified, fearless, and proud…characteristics we wish to instill in children…
“Why on earth would we want to change this ideal?”
Ms. Slater pointed to an online petition of 900 names supporting the mascot as-is and like Ms. Jaqueway, called for it to be permanently put to rest.
Mr. Conklin said it’s the school board’s job to represent the majority, who he said support the mascot.
He also accused Superintendent Dave Blanchard of changing the alma mater from “white men” to “wise men,” but no, Ms. Meyer said, that’s something cheerleaders did on their own when she was a member of the squad.
“It was something we did unofficially, on our own as a way to show respect to some of those who felt it needed to be discussed,” she said.
Ms. Meyer is student at Syracuse University, where students respectively acknowledge that the land they’re on belonged to the Iroquois before most campus events.
“We are so proud of our history and our mascot,” she said. “Changing it would be disrespectful to us now...” but maybe SCS could adopt something like SU does, she said.
“I’m so proud of our mascot…It’s in no way meant to be disrespectful,” she said.