Name: Spaulding urged to retire Red Raiders mascot
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Spaulding urged to retire Red Raiders mascot

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Jordyn HaimeGranite State News CollaborativeView CommentsROCHESTER — Activists are again calling on the city school board to retire Spaulding High School’s Red Raider sports team mascot.As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 550 people had launched by Allies United for Change in Rochester calling on the community to officially retire the image of the Red Raider, which depicts an Indigenous person with a scar on his face. Organizers say the image tokenizes Indigenous culture and invokes negative stereotypes.“I do not want to see my children enter a high school with an antiquated relic, an abrasive relic of the past,” said Beth Grosso, a Rochester mother of two who is working on the organizing effort to change the mascot.The debate over whether to keep or change the Red Raider logo is a familiar one in Rochester. In 2006, an alumnus brought concerns about its offensiveness to the superintendent’s office, but after public meetings and forums, community members disagreed that the symbol was racist and no action was taken.In 2015, local activist Renee Napolitano led a similar effort and urged the school publicly to end the use of the symbol, but she pulled back after she received a negative response from the community and her daughter was reportedly taunted at school for her mother’s efforts.Napolitano hopes the community will change the mascot this time around, as racial justice has been brought to the forefront after nearly two months of consistent protests following the police killing of George Floyd. Earlier this week, the Washington Redskins yielded to pressure from sponsors and activists to change its team name after years of debate. In wake of that news, the Cleveland Indians team manager said the team would explore a similar path.“I made myself a promise at that point that every five years I would resubmit the information and bring in new pieces of information as society changes and evolves, why not reintroduce it?” Naoplitano said. “Interestingly enough, here we are five years later and I had just started thinking about this again a few months ago when everything just blew up. The time is now.”In 2015, Spaulding alumni and then-mayor T.J. Jean at the time as a symbol of honor and respect for Indigenous culture. A conducted that year by CitizensCount found that an 89 percent majority of Rochester residents wanted to keep the mascot.“I totally understand both sides of this,” says current Rochester Mayor Caroline McCarley. “I am not from this community, I’m not a Spaulding High School grad, so I don’t have those ties. But I can understand both sides of the concern about it, I think anyone can.”While McCarley believes the decision to keep or abandon the Red Raider remains up to the school board, she also believes it’s time for a change. “I think while we all over time can realize the implications of something that, at the time of its origin [the implications were not on people’s radar.”“There’s nothing good about the Red Raiders imagery at all. We are quite adamant about that,” said Paul Pouliot, maven and president of the Cowasuck Band of the Pennacook Abenaki People based in Alton.Pouliot has worked with activists against mascots depicting Indigenous stereotypes across New Hampshire and Massachusetts for years. He says the Black Lives Matter movement has brought the issue back to the forefront, and he and his wife, Denise, are currently working on several other efforts throughout the state.Since May, over 1,500 people have signed a petition to . Over 1,600 more signed a petition against Hampton’s since June. In 2018, the Wells school committee to remove all Native American imagery from schools. The “Indian head” mascot was replaced with a red “W”, but the school stuck with the “Warriors” name.Last year, Maine that depict Indigenous people and cultures in public schools and universities. In 2002, the New Hampshire Board of Education called on local schools to stop using Indigenous mascots.Rochester school board Chair Paul Lynch, who has been on the board for 10 years, says he doesn’t understand why some may find the Red Raider offensive.“From a personal perspective, not a board perspective, what it symbolizes to me is respect. It strikes a chord in my character that I should be working harder and doing my best. That’s what that emblem means to me,” Lynch said.Lynch added that although the issue has been brought to the school board before, membership has changed and Rochester should “have the conversation and figure out how we feel about it as a community.”“It’s offensive based on what? That’s what the conversation needs to be about in August, I want to find out why it’s offensive to them,” Lynch added.Pouliot says Lynch’s defense of the Raider as respectful and symbolizing hard work is exactly the problem.“Rochester is honoring us because of our warrior status? Come on. You could have a slave on a plantation picking cotton and say we were honoring them because they were good laborers. They’re not honoring us. It’s racist beyond comprehension,” he said.Spaulding High School Principal Justin Roy said via email that changing or keeping the mascot would be a community decision decided by the school board and declined to comment further.Members of Allies United for Change will meet with the school board’s special services committee at its Aug. 20 meeting.View Comments

Jordyn HaimeGranite State News CollaborativeView CommentsROCHESTER — Activists are again calling on the city school board to retire Spaulding High School’s Red Raider sports team mascot.As of Wednesday afternoon, more than 550 people had launched by Allies United for Change in Rochester calling on the community to officially retire the image of the Red Raider, which depicts an Indigenous person with a scar on his face. Organizers say the image tokenizes Indigenous culture and invokes negative stereotypes.“I do not want to see my children enter a high school with an antiquated relic, an...

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Spaulding urged to retire Red Raiders mascot

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