School board seeking input on proposal to retire high school mascot
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POCATELLO – Pocatello/Chubbuck School District 25’s public work session Tuesday was respectful but emotionally charged at times as administrators and community members weighed in on a proposal to change Pocatello High School’s mascot.
High school principal Lisa Delonas began the meeting with a tearful cry for board members to honor the Pocatello Indians by retiring the mascot.
“Some PHS alum will worry about losing an important piece of school history and tradition, but we can rally behind the fact that change itself is a longstanding part of what makes Pocatello High School amazing,” Delonas said.
Though the intent behind the mascot has always been to honor the Native Americans, Delonas said the Indian mascot has “created opportunities for others to mock, attack, disrespect, denigrate and dehumanize Native Americans.”
“During my six years as principal, I have learned of rival schools holding pep assemblies where scalped Indians lay dead in coffins. I’ve seen posters reading ‘Let’s scalp the Indians,’ and T-shirts with exaggerated caricatures of snarling Indians,” said Delonas.
During the last several years, Delonas said she’s met extensively with members of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes and Native American students and it’s been a difficult journey to accept that something she loves is harming others.
Local tribal members were unable to attend the meeting, but Delonas read a letter written by Kevin Callahan, the vice-chairman of the Fort Hall Business Council. The letter referred to a position paper tribal members wrote in 2019 discussing their opposition to “racial misappropriation of terms” by high school mascots.
“The Fort Hall Business Council is obligated to protect the health, welfare and safety of tribal members and we have encountered physical and verbal threats, harassment and bullying to our young people at sporting events. Our 2019 position paper on racism and mascots in Idaho schools clearly states our opposition to racial misappropriation,” Callahan wrote on behalf of the Shoshone-Bannock Tribes.
The Shoshone-Bannock Tribes began pushing for the name change last year after calling on schools statewide to remove all Native American mascots or nicknames. The position paper identifies eight high schools in the state that they believe are using offensive names. Pocatello High School is fourth on the list.
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In a news release last week, board chairman Dave Mattson said changing the high school mascot has been an ongoing conversation for many years. It was brought up again after Teton School District changed its high school mascot from the Redskins to the Timberwolves. Around the same time, Boise High School changed its mascot from the Braves to the Brave.
During the meeting, Delonas and other administrators asked board members to officially retire the mascot with a trustee vote at next week’s regular board meeting, so they can begin the process of choosing a new name.
Board member Jackie Cranor had a problem with that plan because it lacked input from the public.
Delonas said making the decision without public input was born out of a desire to protect Native American students in her district from negative backlash.
“I’ve watched, most recently, Teton School District go through this and it was ugly,” Delonas explained. “What people are willing to say often is not (considerate towards those) who are going to be impacted by reading or hearing the words. Doing the right thing shouldn’t be open for debate, and I believe it’s the right thing to do.”
Elizabeth Kickham, Director of American Indian Studies at Idaho State University, and Pocatello High School alum Billy Johnson also spoke in favor of the mascot change.
But others expressed differing opinions.
Joan Reed, a former teacher in the school district, pointed to the removal of Osky Ow Wow as a mascot in the 1970s as well as the removal of headdresses in recent years. She then cited other Indian-named icons in the city and said the solution is to educate people rather than remove names and icons.
“What are we going to change next?” Reed asked. “This is political correctness gone amuck and it’s got to stop at some point.”
Longtime community member Gene Waters says those in favor of the change are misguided and he opposes changing the mascot to appease a small group.
Data provided by administrators at Tuesday’s meeting indicates the Native American population within the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District has increased from 0.6% of the student body during the 2019-2020 school year to 3.9% of the student body during the 2020-2021 school year. White students are the majority, making up 77.9% of the total student body.
Everybody’s experience as a Pocatello Indian is different, Cranor says, and more input is needed before a final decision can be made.
“If we’re still getting a lot of comments the first of next week, I really think we’re going to postpone (the date to make a final decision),” Superintendent Douglas Howell said. “I’d like to give everyone a chance to speak.”
About 80 comments have already been submitted to the district via email. Cranor says 50 of those are in favor of the change, 27 are against and two others are just general questions.
If you’re a resident of the Pocatello/Chubbuck School District and would like to weigh in, call (208) 232-3563 or click here.
The regular board meeting is open to the public and will be held Tuesday, Sept. 15 at 5:30 p.m.