- Video shows Camden-Frontier Schools, the "Redskin" school mascot to be phased out this year, recall initiator Sarah Wilcox, Superintendent's statement.
- Last year's school board decision to retire the "Redskin" caused an uproar.
- An attempt to recall two school board members in hopes of revising the decision failed this week.
- Superintendent announces new mascot: the "Redhawks".
(The following is a transcription of the full broadcast story)
A school board decision to retire a mascot led to strong backlash here in Camden.
“After the decision was made against the community’s wishes is when I went out and filed the recall against two of the Board members," says Sarah Wilcox. Wilcox is a Native American, a member of the Camden Village Council, and a voice in this community who believes the Camden-Frontier mascot should remain the Redskins.
The controversy began last year, when the Camden-Frontier school board decided to retire the Redskins mascot.
According to Wilcox, there were "multiple Board meetings where members of the community went out and spoke in favor of keeping the Redskins, and one of the Board Members posted a survey online, on a Facebook page, and over 700 people wanted to keep the Redskins name and logo.”
So strong was the uproar among neighbors that a school board recall election was mounted, targeting the two board members that could be recalled: Jesse Crow and Emily Morrison.
Both retained their seats in this week’s election.
Cadince Flynn from nearby Reading works in Camden. She has heard plenty about the controversy from friends at Camden-Frontier. “A lot of the students there would like to keep it,” she told me, referring to the Redskins mascot.
Flynn thinks the controversy is now subsiding: “There’s not a lot of talk about it anymore…as much as there was when it first started.”
I reached out to School Board Members Crow and Morrison, as well as Superintendent Chris Adams. Adams sent a statement acknowledging the difficulty of the decision, but that he hopes that:
"After decades of debate the district can move forward now that the Recall Election is behind us. The retirement of the mascot was never about erasing the past but embracing the future. Students, Staff and Administration look forward to sporting the district's new mascot, the RedHawks, in the fall."
As for Wilcox, she says she will continue to fight to preserve Native American mascots that, she believes, honor her people.
BONUS: I ASKED WILCOX WHAT OTHER CONCERNS MAY HAVE PLAYED A ROLE. WATCH THE VIDEO BELOW FOR HER RESPONSE.
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