Will Shawnee Mission school remove championship banners with Native American mascot?
Four signs affixed with “Indians” are still on display at Shawnee Mission North High School, including at the entrance to the school’s gymnasium despite a board policy that bans such names for athletic teams in the Shawnee Mission School District.
Above the basketball court, there are 15 state or national championship banners that include the likeliness of a Native American in headdress. These embarrassing images should be taken down. On each baseline, the vestiges of the previous team name remains visible.
Last year, the Shawnee Mission Board of Education was unanimous in its decision to rename mascots at four schools, including Shawnee Mission North. The rebranding, sparked by a campaign initiated by a student at Hocker Grove Middle School, was long overdue.
Give it time, district administrators said of the ghastly signage. North is going to replace every single demeaning reference to Native American culture on campus later this year, they said. But how difficult can it be to remove offensive language from school grounds?
Surely it doesn’t take a year to scrub a gym of these harmful images? The lack of progress is unacceptable. Removing the banners from the rafters seems fairly easy to do. It shouldn’t take a complete gym remodel to adhere to a policy that banned degrading mascots in Shawnee Mission schools. District and school officials can no longer drag their feet on this important issue.
The banners need to come down now.
“The school went through the process of adopting a new mascot, the district anticipated that it would take a year to make all of the changes necessary to move to the new mascot, due to the volume of changes necessary, and the need to schedule work around the use of various areas in the building,” district officials wrote in an email. “At this point, we anticipate being able to meet the original timeline.”
The fight against stereotyping Native Americans as caricatures for sports teams is ongoing. Change has been slow. The Washington Football Team is now the Commanders. The Cleveland baseball franchise selected Guardians as its new team name. In Atchison, Kansas, the local high school sports teams are no longer known as the Redmen. In Missouri, officials at Savannah High School, where athletic teams are known as the Savages, retired its problematic Native American mascot but kept the name.
The Kansas City Chiefs franchise has been unwilling to address any potential changes to its mascot. or to the name of Arrowhead Stadium. Honorary guests still bang an imaginary war drum before games. Fans often celebrate with the racially-insensitive Arrowhead Chop.
The signage and banners at Shawnee Mission North are daily reminders that school officials have more work to do to provide students of all backgrounds a safe and inclusive environment to learn. Removing those hateful images from school property can’t wait.
