State education blasted the Trump Administration for its strong-armed stance against a Long Island school’s rebranding of its Native American-inspired mascot — claiming the feds are making a “mockery” of civil rights laws.
The US Department of Education last week cited the Connetquot Central School District for a civil rights violation because the school board made a slight change to the name of a school mascot to comply with Empire State law, which bars schools from using Native American names.
Officials in Albany are standing their ground.
“The U.S. Department of Education continues to make a mockery of our nation’s civil rights laws,” the state education department said in a statement. “USDOE has offered no explanation as to whose civil rights were violated by changing a team name from Thunderbirds to T-birds.
“And USDOE has still not explained why it maintains an open consent decree with a New York State school district to eliminate its Native American mascot,” the statement said. “NYSED remains committed to ending the use of harmful, outdated, and offensive depictions of Indigenous people and will not sacrifice the dignity of the students and families we serve for political expediency.”
The Trump White House has challenged the state’s ban on Native American names and imagery, citing Connetquot and Massapequa High School, which has fought the state to keep it’s “Chiefs” nickname.
The state Board of Regents voted, in collaboration with Native American leaders, “to end the use of demeaning indigenous names and mascots” in public schools.
“They were compelled to act because certain Native Americans names and images have been shown to perpetuate negative stereotypes that are demonstrably harmful to children,” the statement said.
Connetquot district officials reached a compromise with the state in September, agreeing to change it’s “Thunderbirds” mascot name to the shortened “T-Birds” to settle the dispute.
However, federal education officials maintain that even that move violates the Civil Rights Act of 1964 because it does not hold the same standard for names and imagery tied to other racial and ethnic groups.
In August, US Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, at Trump’s behest, slammed the state crackdown on the two Long Island school districts, chiding “woke idealogues who are attempting to strip them of their beloved Chiefs and Thunderbirds.”
