New School Board Chairman Wants Old Raiders Mascot Name Returned
Emily Cynthia Mae Wood
Volunteer/advocate with AARP, and LTN (Light the Night: Support Reducing Crime) of Rutland, Vermont.
New School Board Chairman Wants Old Raiders Mascot Name Returned
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Emily Wood
RUTLAND, VT, United States
APR 15, 2021 —
READ THE COPIED AND PASTED NEWSPAPER ARTICLE BELOW OR CLICK ON THE LINK ABOVE TO READ IT.
(QUOTE)The new Rutland City School Board chairman says the “Raider” name is back on the table but the arrowhead logo is unlikely to return.
“The logo has to go,” Hurley Cavacas said Wednesday. “It has to be eliminated. That’s a certainty.”
Cavacas was elected the new chairman at the board’s reorganizational meeting Tuesday, ousting Board Member Alison Notte in a 6-5 vote. Toward the end of the meeting, Board Member Stephanie Stoodley, one of the new members elected on a platform of restoring the “Raider” team name, made a motion to do just that and the meeting promptly descended into shouting.
The board voted last year to do away with the Raider name and arrowhead logo in response to concerns they were culturally insensitive, but the move prompted a strong public backlash. The board voted in March to adopt a new name and logo, “the Rutland Ravens,” but Cavacas and the other supporters of the “Raider” name claim the vote was held improperly and Cavacas has stated he intends to use his authority as chairman to declare it void.
Amidst all the procedural arguments, action on the issue was postponed to the board’s May meeting. Cavacas hinted Wednesday at the possibility of using the Raider name, but in a way devoid of any Native American imagery and references — the school’s nickname was previously the “Red Raiders” with an Indigenous American tribal chief logo. He referred repeatedly to the Oakland Raiders.
“The ‘Red’ name is gone,” he said. “Thank God it’s gone. That was racist and discriminatory.”
Cavacas said the board should have spent the last year discussing COVID-related issues instead of the mascot, which raised the question of why the board should bring the mascot back up now.
“I would love to let it die, but I believe the voters of Rutland City have spoken by voting in three pro-mascot candidates,” he said. “Had they not voted that way, we wouldn’t have to be taking another look. ... I’d like to hear from the voters of Rutland who said they were not allowed to speak.”
Voters were allowed to speak — the board held a public forum on the issue at which numerous people spoke for and against doing away with the Raider name — but Cavacas claimed only a limited number of people were allowed to register to speak at the meeting and he believed many of those slots were taken by people from out of state.
Also, Cavacas said the board had questions about the process that was used to pick the new name, “Ravens,” saying the board was not told that in a survey of students to suggest new names, one-third wrote in “Raiders.”
Notte denied there were any procedural missteps regarding the adoption of the “Ravens” name, but did admit to botching a ruling on a motion by Board Member Erin Shimp last year.
“It wouldn’t have changed anything,” Notte said. “She didn’t have the votes.”
Notte said she was not surprised that the new members were moving to restore the Raider name, but she was surprised at how quickly they moved. She said much of the tone of the argument Tuesday was personal in nature.
“It’s about attacking me,” she said. “It’s not about the process, because they change their story every five minutes. ... You can see by his actions last night of saying he’d give me more respect than I gave him and then interrupting me whenever I had the floor — it’s a mess. ... It’s a lot of pettiness.”
Notte maintained that removing the name was the right thing to do, pointing out that marginalized populations are almost always in the minority and have trouble winning majority votes if other people don’t take their concerns seriously.
“The School Board’s mission is to be inclusive and supportive of all students,” she said.
(UNQUOTE)
gordon.dritschilo
@rutlandherald.com
NOTE: TAKING BACK THE RAIDERS NAME WOULD UNDO THE PROGRESS MADE SO FAR. THE RAIDERS NAME IS A SICK COMPROMISE FROM THE PREVIOUS RED RAIDERS NAME. THAT NAME WAS BORN IN INDIGENOUS STEREOTYPES. See https://www.rutlandherald.com/opinion/commentary/cassarino-rutland-red-raiders-origins/article_d7814e57-49d1-55e1-a0e4-5d2fae112966.html
Check out the following links.
https://www.morethanamascotvt.org/
https://www.teachforamerica.org/stories/its-past-time-to-eliminate-racist-native-mascots