By a unanimous vote, the Shelter Island School District Board of Education decided Monday to retire the Shelter Island “Indian” as the school icon and mascot. The vote followed comments over the course of an hour, in which speakers on both sides coalesced around a theme of honoring Native Americans.
About 50 people attended Monday’s meeting which was held outdoors starting at 6 PM with folding chairs set six feet apart in a grassy area behind the school playground. A discussion of the matter, listed under “Old Business” positioned at the bottom of a long agenda, was moved to the top in order to fit it in before darkness fell.
School Board President Kathleen Lynch began by welcoming anyone who wished to speak to do so without any restrictions or time limits. She noted that at the board’s most recent meeting on August 17 some 65 people had attended to hear from speakers on both sides.
“We heard from everyone and I’m hoping for the same tonight.”
Clarifications
Lynch clarified what was meant by the agenda notation “Old Business, School Mascot: Discussion of Suggestion for Formation of a Committee.” She said a proposal to form a committee with representation from both sides of the debate, the board, administration, and other community members had come up during the previous meeting. As such, it was appropriate as a procedural matter to revisit it under Old Business.
But, she and School Superintendent Brian Doelger “felt offering the entire community the opportunity to share their thoughts was the best and more fair and inclusive option.”
“A committee makes the pool of public opinion much smaller,” she said.
Other board members nodded their assent. “We as the school board have been voted to be representatives of our community,” Trustee Tracy McCarthy said. “Therefore, I think we act as a committee of representatives of your voices. And I think to have a [separate] committee defeats the purpose of us serving as school board members.”
Lynch also said there was a misunderstanding in the community that the item had to be listed on the agendas of two meetings in order for the board to take action (a rule that does apply to certain resolutions). She said this was not the case, but that the board had devoted two open-ended public discussion periods to the question of retiring the name.
Simmering all summer
Shelter Island sports teams have been called “the Indians” since the 1970s. In a debate that has been simmering all summer on social media, many people have spoken up in favor of retaining the name. Competing petitions were circulated online, gathering thousands of signatures and hundreds of comments. But most of the students, alumni, residents, and others who spoke or sent correspondence to the district were in favor of making the change.
Lynch said that board members had read all of the materials submitted by both sides, “in the number of hundreds of pages, including both petitions and the comments therein.”
The question had been debated about seven years ago and arose again this summer partly in response to growing demands for racial justice, including a student-run Black Lives Matter rally on Shelter Island in June that attracted about 1,000 people who participated in a peaceful demonstration.
Retire the Shelter Island Indian speakers
[We focus here on speakers who had not previously presented to the board — read our coverage of the earlier meeting this Gazette post.]
Melanie LoBue of the Class of 1996 spoke first and was in favor of transitioning away from the current mascot. She asked the board and community to focus on “prioritization, budget, and curriculum.”
“As far as prioritization goes, I think I speak for a lot of people that we need to be there for the safety of our staff and our students. That should be the top priority for everybody as we go into this school year,” she said.
LoBue said she — along with other alumni (she promised to provide a list to the board) — was willing to volunteer with fundraising to help defray any expenses that might be associated with implementing a name change and to help develop a new curriculum to genuinely honor Shelter Island’s Native American history.
“There are a lot of community members — those who live here, those who don’t, and a lot of students who are here — to assist in getting this job done,” she said.
‘We are not mythical creatures’
“This is an inaccurate depiction of indigenous people, the original inhabitants of this land,” said Shinnecock Indian Nation tribal member Bianca Collins, in expressing her support for retiring the school symbol.
“I do understand the sentimental value to a lot of graduates and especially locals in this area.” But, Collins said, the continued use of such icons causes harm by “dehumanizing indigenous people around the world and especially locally.”
“There are better ways to honor indigenous people,” Collins said. “With incorporating it in your curriculum. With contacting people from our nation. Getting to know these people. Understanding our struggles. Supporting us in all that we do, especially in our economic development.”
She also read an email that had been submitted by her cousin that concluded:
“We are not mythical creatures, we are not costumes, either. We do not want to be misrepresented with fictional stereotypes that make us feel even more invisible. Instead, the schools should be actually teaching about the local history of Native Americans and learn who we are now, the Montaukett, the Shinnecock, the Unkechaughs, the Matinecock, and the Manhansett on the East End of Long Island.”
“We are still here. We are still holding onto our ancestral territories and our cultural ways and are still fighting, too, for what was taken away from our ancestors, generation after generation. Teach that and celebrate that with us.”
Create a public referendum?
A parent of two children in the school, Shelter Islander Ron Jernick, who himself attended the school but completed his education in Florida, spoke against changing the symbol. He asked whether current trustees had researched why the board decided against making the change seven years ago.
“I think it also would be nice if coming into the gym hallway maybe we put up a display case of artifacts, writings of the Indians so when we have guests they can see why we are called the Shelter Island Indians.”
Jernick suggested a decision be postponed until the next school election in May and that it be presented as a public referendum, particularly if it will cause additional expense for things like repainting the school floor . (After the public comments concluded, the school’s attorney, Mary Ann Sadowski of Ingerman Smith, said that state education law governing the types of questions that may be put forth as a public referendum does not allow for such advisory polling.)
‘Racism is not political’
Bianca Evangelista, Class of 2018, read a comment submitted by Henry Binder, who was in Milwaukee starting his freshman year at Marquette University. Binder, who spoke extensively at the August 17th meeting, wrote about Marquette’s shift away from its own Indian-themed symbol and noted he was “strongly advocating for the complete removal of the offensive and culturally insensitive Indian icon.”
Evangelista, who described moving from a graduating class of 23 students here to a freshman class of 9,000 at Rutgers University, said that to her peers there, the concept of having Indians as a mascot is understood to be unacceptable.
While outsider views aren’t always welcome, Evangelista said, “we aren’t an exception to the real world.”
“At first glance, nobody should see or hear of a mascot and say, ‘That doesn’t seem right.’ To me that alone seems enough to warrant change,” she said. “I’m here to ask that we, everyone here as a community take this step.”
Students today “want everyone to not be ashamed of the mascot, of who they cheer for, since that’s our friends, family, and peers playing for the Island,” she said. “I urge you to understand while, yes, you could’ve supported the Indian mascot in your time in school here but it is legitimately offensive as people have said. And it’s just plainly outdated.”
“As someone who has been mistaken for every race on the planet — and I don’t want you to guess where my parents are from if you don’t know — please I would love to change this mascot, it’s okay to change,” she said.
“We just want a representative that everyone feels comfortable supporting,” she said. “I don’t think that’s too much to ask for. With a kind heart, I leave with you a statement that racism is not political.”
‘Trivialized and tokenized’
From the Class of 2010, Jodi Bentivegna, a ferry boat captain and artist, offered to assist with crafting a new logo and argued the case for retiring the avatar.
Bentivegna called “lexical hairsplitting” the notion that Shelter Island has no mascot since it retired the use of a “really heinous” costumed character years ago. “Whether we call it the Indian mascot or icon, the problem it presents persist.”
“I don’t believe anyone here has malicious intent,” she said. “I think the people who want to keep the Shelter Island Indian mascot really do wish to honor the Island’s first inhabitants and their history, and that its difficult to hear charges of racism when one’s intent is good. However, racism is about more than just intent.”
“When I hear white people calling themselves Indians, I think about the actual hardships faced by Native people,” she said. “They’re more likely to live in poverty than whites, they have higher infant mortality rates. Native women face sexual assault and violent crime at much higher than average rates. Native life expectancy is lower than it is for whites. Native Americans die by suicide at disproportionate rates. These are really grim demographics.”
“I bring them up to reinforce what we all know,” she said. “That person who actually are Native American face unique challenges. And to claim their identity while being sort of blissfully unencumbered by their hardships is crass at best.”
Sources of school mascots, she said, range from animals, like panthers, to occupations, like cowboys, to mythologized/historical characters, like Vikings, Spartans, and Pioneers.
“Maybe some of that last group would take issue with their names being lent to young people’s sports groups,” she said.”Maybe they’d love it. Unlike Native Americans, they’re not around for us to ask. Which brings me to the only point I feel needs to made in this argument.”
“Native Americans are not a monolith, but for the most part they do not feel honored by Indian-themed school mascots,” she said. “They feel stereotyped by them. They feel trivialized, tokenized, and relegated to the past, like those Vikings, Spartans and Pioneers. They find Indian mascots harmful, and that should be all white people need to know about the subject.”
“You don’t need me, a white lady, to stand here quoting leaders of the Shinnecock Nation,” she said. “You know we’ve been asked to desist. You do not need me to remind you of the literally thousands of Native-led organizations who have fought and protested their myriad cultures being compressed into the iconography of a sports team. Ultimately, Native Americans and only Native Americans get to decide what is or is not offensive to Native Americans.”
Bentivegna spoke of the influence of the Black Lives Matter movement, and personal lessons she’s learned from it. “At the front of that list is the importance of accepting and correcting our own wrongdoings.”
“I don’t wish to cancel anyone, or attribute malicious characteristics to those on the other side of this debate,” she said. “Instead, I hope that we can come together as a community, accept that what was permissible in the past is no longer permissible and listen to what our Shinnecock neighbors and Native Americans across the country have been asking us to do for decades: change the mascot.”
“We have all been complicit at some point and we can all agree to do better in the future,” she said. “And in doing so, we set a critical precedent for the children of Shelter Island School. We were wrong, we were made to see that, and so we changed.”
From a past board member
Emma Gallagher, who spoke at length at the August 17th meeting, read remarks from former board member Marilyn Pysher who was unable to attend:
“I know there are strong feelings on each side and I understand and respect those opinions. But times have changed and its time for a change especially now that other organizations are removing Indians from their logo and we are becoming more aware of symbols that offend others and bring up negative memories for them, despite our original intentions.”
“Doing so would reinforce the civil sensitivity of our young people and better prepare them for living in a more diverse world that respects all ethnicities. It also demonstrates the growth and future focus of our school.”
“Bottom line: why would we want to hold onto something that offends some people just for nostalgia’s sake. That’s really not who we are as a community. Finally, I applaud the young poeple who are persistently standing up for this and other civil rights issues despite the negative feedback that might receive.”
‘An emotional, nostalgic thing’
From the Class of 1976, Sherri Cavasini took a turn at the microphone, having also spoken at length on August 17.
“I like to be open-minded, and respectful and I see both sides,” she said. “I am not a native Indian. I represented the Indians I felt with honor and pride and respect.”
“It is an emotional, nostalgic thing with me,” she said. “But I always represented them with pride and respect and I’m not a racist. I wish that we could all come to some happy medium in this. I do respect what these folks have just said, I know it’s not an easy decision.”
Cavasini said that other Native Americans had appeared at debates in the past and reported that they did not feel the use of the symbol was offensive.
“Never was there mascots with costumes; we never mocked anybody,” she said. “Certainly, I don’t want to be offensive to anyone. If it’s time for change, that’ll be up to all of you, but I’d like to see it come to come kind of happy medium.”
A costumed mascot and ‘battle cries’
Next up was Cris DiOrio, Class of 2007, who said he played sports through much of his time at Shelter Island High School and recalled both a costumed mascot and “battle cries”.
“I think we have a really interesting thing going on here,” he said. “We have an older generation that has an immense feeling of pride around this issue, and I’m not trying to debate about whether they should have that pride.”
“I, unlike Sherri, though, had a different experience in school where we had a very offensive costumed mascot and we used to do battle cries at games. I was a person who did that along with probably just about everyone that’s here right now.”
“We don’t do that anymore because we recognize that that was wrong,” he said. “We don’t have this costumed mascot for the same reason.”
DiOrio recalled being a child in about fifth or sixth grade in gym class. “They stopped the class, kinda had us all go over to the side. And a man from the Shinnecock Nation came to look at the emblem on the floor, and to check out what we had going on in the gym.”
“I don’t know what that conversation looked like, I was too young to understand that,” he said. “I didn’t know that this was an offensive thing at the time. He clearly was offended, though. And after that, we no longer had the costume. We still did battle cries for a couple of years, that was a harder thing to die. But that did eventually change.”
“And then, at that time as well, they changed the mascot that was on the floor, the painting, that was on the floor,” he said. “This is a thing where we have been slowly changing over time.”
Clearly, the use of the Indian as a symbol is very offensive “to some people it is supposed to be depicting,” he said. “It’s not a question of whether some people like it or some people are OK with it.”
“This isn’t about how we think of our years in high school, whether or not we had fun playing sports, whether our not were proud of our community and proud of our school,” he said. “We can still be proud of our community and proud our school no matter who our logo is, no matter what our mascot is.”
“I just urge you to do what is courageous and right here,” he said. “I know I have experienced quite a bit of backlash for my stance on this. I think that you all will suffer some of that. I imagine that you have to some extent already.”
“I know that that is a hard thing to deal with. But I urge you think about what is really right and what the real issue is here,” he said. “It is an offensive icon. So please, please change it.”
DiOrio encouraged the board to act right away, and use funds budgeted for unanticipated expenses to cover any associated costs.
‘Respect and honor the guidance’
Lora Lomuscio, who is a parent of a student and herself attended the elementary school, thanked Collins for speaking at the meeting.
“I believe we should respect and honor the guidance that’s been given to us from the Shinnecock Nation,” she said, noting also that Eric LaPointe of the Lakota Sioux had spoken at the August 17th meeting. “This is Shelter Island’s chance to genuinely show honor and respect to indigenous people by listening to them.”
“Unfortunately, our country has a long history of not listening to Native Americans. This history includes broken treaties and the desecration of tribal lands and gravesites. The Shinnecock people are literally still fighting today for a graves protection law for their ancestors’ graves,” she said.
“So there are real repercussions when you allow stereotypes and one-dimensional representations of a people. Change can be hard, but now that we know better, let’s do better.”
‘Find a way to honor it’
Cliff Clark, president of South Ferry Company, Inc., attended Shelter Island School from first grade through high school, where he played sports. “We weren’t the Indians back then, just the Islanders.”
“But we had great respect for them,” he said and recalled learning about the Island’s early inhabitants including Pogatticut, a chief of the Manhansett Tribe for whom the school yearbook is named.
“It was a great culture, and is. And I hope that we can find a way to honor it,” Clark said, noting that he served as a coach here for 18 years. “The teams I coached were known as the Indians and they participated proudly in their sports.”
“I personally think that both sides are right on this,” he said. “The ones who feel it’s offensive and we should rethink it are absolutely right. The people that played under it and played for that image, and fought boldly and bravely for it and have pride in, I think they’re right. Why would we judge anybody being right or wrong?”
“For me, it’s simpler,” Clark said, and before reflecting on biblical passages, quipped, “I know we’re not supposed to talk Bible on the grounds here.”
In both the Old Testament and the New Testament, he said, are commands to “love God with all your heart and all your soul and all your might, and love your neighbor as yourself.”
“The Native American people are speaking. They’re our neighbors. We’re all neighbors; we’re are all in this thing together,” Clark said. “At one point, I thought ‘Let’s keep this’, but if we’re going to love our neighbors, and our neighbors are saying ‘You’re hurting me’, is that loving our neighbors?
“So I say, maybe it’s time to step away from this particular logo,” Clark said. “I wish there was a way that we could combine this with something else. Make it to where we honor the first Americans. Please don’t let that be lost.”
“But if we’re going to love our neighbors, and our neighbors are saying ‘You’re hurting me,’ that’s not right,” Clark said.
‘Concerning our Island’
After Clark spoke, Lynch began to introduce the board discussion, but then stopped to clarify certain points, including whether the name of the yearbook might also be changed. This prompted a comment from one more member of the public.
“Why can’t we take this to a public vote among taxpayers on Shelter Island,” asked Eric Springer, who grew up on the Island and is a business owner. “Let Islanders decide how they want to do this.”
“I feel that this should go to a public vote because its concerning our Island,” he said. “I respect the Shinnecock Nation and what they do and who they are. I respect Indians.”
Springer said that when he went to school a focus in sixth grade was on the history of Shelter Island, “but the first quarter was learning about the Indians, the indigenous people who came here. As students, we knew going into high school, what the Indians meant, … we knew the entire history of Shelter Island.”
“I learned a sense of pride around Indians,” he said. “My grandfather used to take me around Shelter Island, show me where the burials are, show me where the campsites were.”
Springer, who said he is a descendant of some of the Island’s earliest European settlers, also questioned the value of petitions circulated outside the community; at least three were posted on change.org about the mascot question.
“You can send a petition, send it all around the world. Who are they to decide what happens in our community? This is where we live. Nobody else. We should decide it as a whole, as a community, and as the taxpayers that pay for the school.”
And he made reference to an opinion circulating on social media that voters offended by the change should reject the next school budget.
“I’ve never voted against the school budget and I don’t think I will, but you should consider putting it out to a public vote, that’s my honest opinion,” he said.
Lynch had the district’s attorney, Mary Ann Sadowski, respond.
“There are certain propositions that can become voter-initiated propositions,” Sadowski said. “But the topic has to fall within the purview of the voters. In this case, this particular issue is not within the purview of the voters.”
Advisory propositions, she said, are not permitted in New York for school districts. “So, unfortunately, Mr. Springer’s suggestion is not something you entertain lawfully.”
The board responds
Lynch first turned to the unaddressed question raised by Ron Jernick about research into past board decisions. She said she had attended the board meeting in question, and had also consulted with longtime board members, including Thomas Graffagnino.
“At the time they had decided to go with calling the mascot an icon, and everyone sort of left it at that,” she said. “Even Tom Graffagnino said there was a time when he would’ve staunchly been in that corner and felt that now is time for a change. He gave me permission to share that in the event of that meeting coming up.”
Trustee Dawn Hedberg said a review of Shelter Island Reporter archives showed the question first came up in 2002/2003; the board didn’t vote then but did discuss it. “I note that so it’s clear to everybody that this is not a new issue before the board,” she said.
‘Several vantage points’
Lynch said she’s been “thinking about this topic from several vantage points. One is my concern over the eventuality that this decision would be taken from us if we don’t make it on our own.”
In 2001, the New York State educational commissioner asked all school districts to end the use of Native American mascots “as soon as practical,” she said. There has been legislation put forth to require school districts using “race-based” mascots to hold forums addressing racial sensitivity, as well as proposals to cut state aid to districts that keep such mascots.
“I truly believe there’s writing on the wall in regards to this, especially as one school after another makes the decision to retire their mascots.”
What’s more, Lynch said, the divide has grown between those who proudly say “I’m an Indian” and those who say “but you’re not an Indian.”
“I think this could be missing the bigger picture and preventing compromise and understanding,” she said. “For those who have come forth to support keeping the Shelter Island Indian, I have seen nothing but reverence and pride.”
They were not inspired by racism, she said, “but out of a sense of belonging to something. And I believe their intent was to honor.”
But they also want new generations of students to experience “that same wonderful experience of being an Indian that you had. And it doesn’t sound like that’s the experience that people are having.”
The challenge is to keep the spirit without insulting a culture. “Icons and mascots and symbols do not satisfy the work of educating or engaging dialogue,” Lynch said. “They are not a substitute for the work. If the intention is to keep the history and honor the first people of Shelter Island, let’s do that.”
Lynch said the development of a curriculum task force would be a step in the right direction. “I heard something on the 17th that has stuck with me. Emma Gallagher read this: ‘In its essence, a mascot is something a school is meant to rally behind, to raise school spirit and unite the community in hometown pride. As is demonstrated by this very debate, the Shelter Island Indians has become a symbol of division’.”
Margaret Colligan
Board Vice President Margaret Colligan said that she’s been “an avid spectator” of Shelter Island school sports for more than a decade “and I never witnessed any hint of disrespect directed toward the Indian icon that represents our school.”
“I understand the memory of participation and the allegiance that members of our community have expressed and the pride that they feel,” she said. “It’s a rich history to be cherished and nothing can diminish those feelings.”
“However, the term Indian is a misnomer. It does not define or describe indigenous people. The term has vanished from United States textbooks and has been replaced by more accurate descriptors. Native Americans who have participated in our forum both in person and via email spoke to the inaccuracies of our stereotypical depiction.”
Eric LaPointe, one of the speakers at the August 17 meeting, noted that the icon doesn’t “illustrate our Mahansett people, but more the western tribes of the Dakotas. He enlightened us to the meaning of the headdress and bemoaned the fact that this sacred representation was being run over by our athletes.”
“The choice of the word Indian, denigrates and marginalizes a culture,” Colligan said. “If we ignore this, we denigrate and marginalize all of us. Oprah once said, ‘We do the best we can, and when we know better, we do better.’ And I think we know better.”
“I have no desire to expunge the history that is associated with the Indian,” Colligan said. “It is a proud tradition that lives in the hearts and minds of many in our community. Let’s move forward together and find a symbol that represents the essence of who we are and respects all aspects of society.”
Katherine Rossi-Snook
Katherine Rossi-Snook set aside her prepared words. “I think it’s important sometimes to just kind of step back. I really appreciate everything that was shared. Today and at the last meeting. I’m so relieved to finally be having this conversation. It’s felt like a very long six weeks.”
“Reviewing my notes from last time, but more importantly from this time, I find it interesting that there seems to be a running theme within many of your comments that it’s time.”
“It is absolutely clear and some of you pointed this out, there was no mal-intent. I feel this pride that you have spoken of,” she said. “I get that. And I’m not here to judge you on that. Just as we cannot sit here and judge and say that the term Indian is not offensive.”
Rossi-Snook said she was raised to understand Indian wasn’t to be used when describing Native Americans. “This isn’t new.”
“What it really comes down to is if students have a hard time wearing a uniform with the word Indian on it, then that’s a problem.”
“If a coach has a hard time cheering for the team name, that’s a problem. And if a cheerleader feels sick having to sing cheers with the word Indian, then that’s a problem. And that’s the most important point. That our students need to love their team mascot and cheer for it … It should be a symbol that unites us and not drives us apart. That’s how I stand, it’s time.”
Tracy McCarthy
“What came through to me after that last meeting from both sides was the need for more education on Shelter Island history and the indigenous people and where they fit in with our history,” said McCarthy, who is operations manager at Sylvester Manor Educational Farm, where local history and heritage are of primary concern.
“It was interesting to me when Eric Springer said that history was taught in the younger grades,” she said. “I don’t think that’s happening right now and I think that’s something that absolutely should be happening in school throughout their entire Pre-K through 12.”
McCarthy said she did an informal poll of teachers about the use of the word Indian and found none use the word to refer to Native Americans. “To me, there’s some sort of disconnect when we’re teaching our students not to use that word, but yet its OK to have it on our school uniforms.”
“I think that by increasing the education, we can acknowledge the Native presence that’s always been here, that’s part of our Town, that’s part of who we are,” she said. “May be it was OK back in the 70s when Cliff was here, to be called the Indians, but it’s not OK now, it’s not appropriate.”
“In 1952, there was an article in the New York Times celebrating the 300th anniversary of Shelter Island. And it was a re-enactment of Nathaniel Sylvester’s landing here,” McCarthy said. “In that article — it was a very positive article — they had pictures of townspeople dressed up in red face and welcoming by saying ‘how’ and ‘ugh’. That was celebrated then in the New York Times.”
“We are now 70 years past that, it’s not OK now. Things change. Societies evolve. It’s OK. No one is trying to take away your history. No one is trying to take away pride. But times have changed.”
“We’ve talked a lot about how to honor the indigenous people, perhaps we could have a blessing at the beginning of our school year by someone from the Shinnecock Nation at our back to school picnic,” she said. “Maybe we can come up with some kind of motto for our school that includes an honor for the indigenous people.”
“It does not have to be a name slapped across the chest of our athletes or on our gym floor. There are other ways to do this and incorporating it for the school and the community, in addition to the curriculum, which I think is a fantastic idea,” McCarthy said. “We can be creative. We can do this as a community. But it’s time to change and be more inclusive for everyone.”
Dawn Hedberg
The three new board members spoke next, each having joined the board this summer.
“The one thing we all agree on is there’s an issue between intent and how it is currently perceived,” said Dawn Hedberg. “Nobody thinks that the intent was to patronize or insult the Native Americans. I think it is very clear that the idea was to honor them and to echo the idea that they had this strength and heritage that was important to us.”
“But in trying to honor the Native Americans that lived here originally, we are unintentionally affecting the Native Americans that are alive today,” she said. “We are dishonoring them when they ask us to not use their image in this way. That they find it patronizing. That they don’t find it helpful for their own children.”
“Even if the stereotype is positive, like we’re thinking it is a brave warrior, or a wise shaman, even if the stereotype seems positive to us, they are telling us that it still doesn’t feel good, it’s still inappropriate,” Hedberg said.
“One of the things I noted about the statement that the Shinnecock tribe made in one of the local papers is that their children will often play on local sports teams and have to play against teams called the Indians,” she said. “It just doesn’t feel good for them.”
Hedberg said she, like other board members, read everything that had been submitted by both sides, did additional research and heard from community members. “It really hurts me that many of my friends are very upset about this coming up as an issue. They really love this community and they really love being an Indian. I want them to know that we’re not trying to take that away.”
“My son ran cross-country and track here for six years and it was a very important part of his life,” she said. “Its a very difficult decision to make. It’s an uncomfortable position to be put in. But I think that the time has come to make a transition away.”
“It’s not a helpful stereotype and doesn’t set a positive example for our children.”
Rob Strauss
Rob Strauss said he wouldn’t repeat what other trustees had already said, but echoed their sentiments and agreed it was time for a change.
“I’m just thinking that people who have gone to this school as Islanders or as Indians, it really has more to do with pride in the school and the experience in the school and the accomplishments you have either as individuals or team members for the school,” he said.
“That needs to be remembered. That’s not going to change. The pride that this community has in the school; the support that this community has in the school is unwavering and something to be very, very proud of,” he said.
“Your past pride as a graduate or attendee at this school is never going to change,” he said.
Karina Montalvo
Montalvo, who was sworn in on August 17 and had that meeting’s long, public comment session as her introduction to board service, said she was grateful to be involved.
“When I first came to be part of such an amazing committee, and the community as well, and when the subject was brought to me, I felt like it was just something that didn’t affect me personally. At the same time, it doesn’t mean that when something doesn’t affect you personally it can be ignored.”
“So, the fact that we have this platform to talk about subjects and start conversations that result in actions that are sustainable and that impact in a positive way our community, it’s amazing. I’m very grateful to have this opportunity,” she said.
“I’m Dominican, as most of you guys know. And we do not have the privilege to listen to hear the opinion of our native, the Taínos because they’re extinct,” she said. “So the fact that we have the privilege to listen to our natives, and they are feeling hurt and not honored at all having a mascot called the Indians, it’s something that we need to take into consideration.”
The vote
Lynch thanked everyone who sat through the long meetings, along with the board and staff, and also thanked those who wrote to the board and engaged in conversation.
“I’m going to ask for a motion to retire the use of the name Indian as icon/mascot for the Shelter Island Union Free School District.”
The decision passed by a unanimous vote. Lynch said a long process “with the voices of many people” will be set up to determine next steps. “I’ve heard a lot of amazing and wonderful ideas here,” she said.
Cavasini asked whether the name of the yearbook would also be retired, and who would choose a new name. Lynch said all of the questions raised by the retirement of the Indian name would be sorted through, and she invited Cavasini to be part of the conversation.
“I know how proud you are and I know you probably want to stay in the conversation,” Lynch said. “But it is a process and there’s a lot to think about.”
[Editor’s note: this post has been updated to correct minor spelling errors and typos. Thank you to our readers for spotting mistakes and for calling our attention to them. We SO appreciate it!]
