Results 1 to 11 of 11

Thread: Mascot, management bring out Lancaster voters on both sides

  1. #1
    Member Neubs24's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Lancaster
    Posts
    652

    Mascot, management bring out Lancaster voters on both sides

    http://www.buffalonews.com/city-regi...sides-20160517

    A steady stream of Lancaster residents headed to vote at the high school this morning amidst controversy about divisiveness within the district, the abandoned Redskins team name and district management.

    “There’s so much ugliness going on. It’s not nice,” said one voter who declined to give his name.

    School Board candidates ranged from a pair fiercely opposed to the board majority and the superintendent to pro-board candidates as well as an independent, Kristi Perillo-Okeke. She was Tracey Maw’s choice, in part because she intended to stick with the name Legends, which replaced the more traditional – and controversial – Redskins name and mascot.

    “It’s time to move away from that and focus on the issues: Educating the kids,” said Maw, pausing along the sidewalk lined with candidates and signs.

    Another voter, and former School Board member, voted against the budget without voting for a single candidate. The Redskins name didn’t matter to Debra Simme as much as how district money was slated to be spent.

    “I want to see the money go directly to the children,” she said, explaining that she didn’t think it should go to expenses like health insurance for retired staff.

    “This could be going for a teacher’s aide … Something for the kids,” she said. “When most of it’s going to salary and benefits, I don’t like that.”

    Further down the sidewalk, Colleen Kilanowski talked with the opposition candidates that she supported. She wanted a process change. The rush to abandon the Redskins name and to adopt Common Core standards upset her because educators seemed to be scrambling without sufficient guidance.

    “The way they implemented it was awful,” she said. “Teachers need to feel supported.”

    She said it was as if everyone was saying, “Hey we have to do this. Let’s do it now.”

    While Lancaster made news this year for the strident tenor on the divided board, she said last year was worse. Now, she said, people need to collaborate more.

    “I think they need to grow up and work together,” Kilanowski said of board members.

    email: mkearns@buffnews.com

  2. #2
    Member
    Join Date
    Apr 2015
    Posts
    484
    "but its not about the mascot!"....says the people in front of the school on election day decked out in their redskins sweatshirts

  3. #3
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,150
    Neubs did you note any defamatory comments from the Facebook impersonator?

    Georgia L Schlager

  4. #4
    Member Neubs24's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2011
    Location
    Lancaster
    Posts
    652
    Nothing terrible. But nothing that I would ever say either.

  5. #5
    Member Frank Broughton's Avatar
    Join Date
    May 2006
    Location
    Oh, good grief...
    Posts
    6,406
    Quote Originally Posted by Neubs24 View Post
    “It’s time to move away from that and focus on the issues: Educating the kids,” said Maw, pausing along the sidewalk lined with candidates and signs.
    Yea, like teaching them we come from a rock and morality means nothing! Only a fool sends their kids to these indoctrination camps.
    The above is opinion & commentary, I am exercising my 1st Amendment rights as a US citizen. Posts are NOT made with any malicious intent.

  6. #6

  7. #7
    Member buffalopundit's Avatar
    Join Date
    Aug 2004
    Posts
    1,710
    I'll bet if someone used an anti-Italian epithet towards the author of that letter, he'd change his tune.
    This website makes money off of a depraved and idiotic conspiracy theory.

  8. #8
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,150
    Since the people being polled were self-proclaimed Native American Indians, how do we really know how many were truly Nat Amer Ind? Wasn't there a fake (Yancey) brought into a school board meeting last year by the redskin supporters?

    Georgia L Schlager

  9. #9
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,150
    School Solves Offensive Sports Nickname Problem By Changing To No Nickname At All
    Bob Cook, Contributor
    Opinions expressed by Forbes Contributors are their own.
    In Fort Smith, Ark., the longtime athletic director at Southside High resigned unexpectedly May 23, and it appears there will be a hot school board election fight, both over one issue: the decision to drop its Rebels nickname and its associated Confederate pageantry, as many schools have done or are doing because of the increasingly negative connotations of using such images. Meanwhile, a May 16 school board election in Lancaster, N.Y., boiled down to one issue — whether to bring back the high school’s Redskins mascot, retired the previous year, as many schools have done or are doing because of the increasingly negative blowback for using such images.

    In Lancaster, it turned out the anti-Redskins faction won the election. But I would hardly say that settles the issue of whether certain school sports mascots and nicknames are offensive, or whether politically correct, pointy-headed bleeding hearts should just shut up and not mess with tradition. (Am I summarizing the pro-offensive mascot case correctly?) For example, the University of Illinois retired Chief Illiniwek, generally a white students dancing around as an “Indian,” as its mascot in 2007, yet in 2016 there is still a group on campus who ensures the chief still shows up for ballgames.

    One school district in California, though, thinks it’s found a way to solve the nickname problem to everyone’s satisfaction. The Calaveras Unified School District, because of a state law passed in the fall banning the use of “Redskins” as a nickname for public schools, had to come up with a new one. Well, actually, that’s not quite right — the high school just had to lose its Redskins nickname. Which it did. But the law didn’t say the district had to replace it with anything. Which it didn’t.

    From the Stockton Record:

    "Calaveras High School will no longer feature a mascot and will be simply referred to as “Calaveras High School.”

    The school announced late Tuesday at a Calaveras Unified School District board meeting that community input was overwhelming to forgo a mascot change from Redskins. Instead, the school will keep the current logo, which depicts an American Indian in full headdress, a sequoia and a crest with mining tools, without “Redskins” attached. …

    The high school in San Andreas held two public input surveys and since the spring, announced the committee would decide new nicknames among “Skulls,” “Reds,” or “Red Tail Hawks,” and having no mascot at all.

    Wait, you mean Calaveras never considered the obvious choice: Jumping Frogs?

    It seems the case for no nickname was that the community didn’t really want to give up the nickname and its associated imagery. The state law didn’t say it had to give up the imagery, but Calaveras couldn’t well come up with another Native American-themed nickname. So no nickname it is. As for a mascot, though — Dahkota Franklin Kicking Bear Brown, a high school student who was instrumental in creating and pushing the California law, was tempering his joy for Calaveras a little bit.

    From the Stockton Record:
    “We are heartened to learn that Calaveras has chosen to drop the use of their mascot, we hope that this change also marks a shift in ideologies and practices at Calaveras High,” Dahkota Brown said in a statement.

    “As we continue our relationship with Calaveras, we do ask that they reconsider their attire policies for school events, and do away with the practice of ‘playing Indian’ and wearing headdresses, war paint, and other faux-Native practices. We look forward to this new era of Calaveras, which is inclusive and accepting for all students.” …

    Calaveras High has worked with members of the local Miwok tribe to ensure [the logo] is dignified. For example, several years ago, school officials became aware that tribal members were offended that the logo was on the floor of the gym, where people walked on it. School officials removed it from the floor and had it painted on the gym wall, satisfying tribal leaders.
    http://www.forbes.com/sites/bobcook/.../#604d02724500

    Georgia L Schlager

  10. #10
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,150
    A Letter To Lancaster, NY
    Let's be the Legends I know we can be.
    Danielle Rennicks

    Lancaster, New York,

    You are a sweet little town; OK, maybe not so little. You’re actually pretty big, and you're pretty great ... sometimes. We’ve been on the news within the past year or so for something that may seem silly, but needs to be talked about, and I’m going to talk about it.



    For some reason, we are still talking about the mascot name. It has been a little over a year since it was changed. And if you are reading this, and you’re not from Lancaster, yes — we are the community who changed our mascot name. We looked like fools on national media. People were talking about us on Tumblr, Facebook and Twitter for how silly we were for having a racist mascot name. Or is it racist? Nobody seems to know.

    Anyways, we recently had our school board election and for some reason, we had "pro-Redskins" and "pro-administration" candidates running for our school board. Seems pretty logical to pick the "pro-administration" candidates, right? Well, we did, but a ton of people still voted for the "pro-Redskins" candidates. Mainly to change the name back, even though it was changed for a reason.

    The basic idea is that our old mascot, the Lancaster Redskin, is racist and degrading, and we should not be using it. I personally agree with this, but a lot of people don’t. The argument for the mascot is that people find that the name is honoring the Native American community, for our mostly white middle-class community is strong, and we are representing the name with might and strength and boldness — and that somehow makes it OK. Native Americans were brought in — some said it was fine, others said it bothered them. The other argument for the mascot is tradition. Keep it for tradition. Keep it because that's how it's been for years. Tradition is a huge thing for Lancaster, especially in the school district. People sound like Tevye from "Fiddler on the Roof" (which ironically had been produced at the high school two years before).



    Unfortunately for some and fortunately for others, we are now the Lancaster Legends, which honestly sounds pretty cool. To hear "The Lancaster Marching Legends" sounds pretty awesome when you're walking with the kids out onto the field for competition. For some reason, people are still upset and being sore losers about the whole situation, mostly the adults and alumni who graduated way before my time. Is being upset about changing our mascot to something that's truly strong and bold really the best way to show how great our community is?

    Lancaster has such wonderful programs. We have a great Youth Bureau, where families can go multiple times a year (the beginning of school, Thanksgiving, Christmas) to get things that they need and can’t afford. We have a great music program, which has a reputation throughout the state for being one of the best. We have great athletic programs, which can be seen through championship winning games and great teamwork. We have a cute downtown that has been reborn over the past few years, two large and pretty parks, a beautiful town hall and opera house, great community events around the holidays and a community that comes together when times are hard.



    I was in school when I found out that one of our own was killed when riding his bike. I was in the cafeteria with the marching band when another one of our own was killed in a plane crash. I saw on Instagram the posts of the lockers of students who have killed themselves because of bullying. We’ve had a lot of tragedy in Lancaster, and our community always seems to pull together to support each other. And I’m sad that this is not the side of Lancaster that people get to see. Instead, people get to see the stupidity that is the fight over a silly mascot.

    Is fighting over a mascot really that important? What about the education of the students? What about the sports teams and the music department? Are the kids in the school happy? Are they well fed? Are the students getting good grades or reading at the proper grade level? Maybe instead of focusing on a mascot, we can focus on the education of the students, which the mascot does not help or hinder in any way.

    So Lancaster, I’m reaching out to you to ask you something. As someone who grew up in Lancaster as a Redskin, I am asking that you retire the Redskin mascot. Holding on to it and fighting for it seems so silly when we can focus on so much more. We can focus on supporting our students, on making sure that the bullies in our community are stopped, on strengthening the programs that we brag about so much to others and strengthening ourselves. Please, put down your tomahawks, take down your signs, and pick up a sword, for the sword is just as mighty and strong as the tomahawk. If you do this, I know that our community can become legendary, and we can grow even more, instead of being torn in two.



    https://www.theodysseyonline.com/ope...r-to-lancaster

    Georgia L Schlager

  11. #11
    Member gorja's Avatar
    Join Date
    Jan 2007
    Location
    Lancaster, NY
    Posts
    13,150
    Some things never change


    Georgia L Schlager

Thread Information

Users Browsing this Thread

There are currently 1 users browsing this thread. (0 members and 1 guests)

Similar Threads

  1. Pro-mascot candidates win seats in Lancaster
    By cheekman in forum Speakup Here
    Replies: 5
    Last Post: May 20th, 2015, 10:45 PM

Posting Permissions

  • You may not post new threads
  • You may not post replies
  • You may not post attachments
  • You may not edit your posts
  •