TURNERS FALLS — At next Tuesday’s Gill-Montague Regional School Committee meeting, those who want to keep the Turners Falls High School “Indians” mascot will get their chance to make their opening arguments to the board.
In an email to committee members and the media, School Committee Chairman Michael Langknecht said he would like to allow public comments at the meeting, giving both sides of the debate the same opportunity to address the board.
“My intent is to hold a normal meeting with the usual public participation at the start,” he wrote in the email. “Since one ‘side’ has spoken once, already, I feel the (keep the mascot) petition group should be given the same courtesy: 15 minutes, one to five speakers and hear what they’d like to tell us and acknowledge the others in attendance.”
The current public debate over the mascot stems from a previous school board meeting in May where members of the community approached the committee requesting it change the mascot, arguing it’s racist and denigrating to Native Americans.
Since that May meeting the committee has been considering how to respond, and at it’s last meeting earlier this month, Langknecht and Superintendent Michael Sullivan presented a proposal for how to handle the request.
They have set up a two-step process, starting with consideration and vote on whether to review the mascot name at all. A decision to go forward would be followed by a year or more of time for hearings and presentations as a way to include the community in the decision-making process.
The decision to initiate the review, and any final decision to actually change the mascot both have to pass the nine-member committee with a majority vote.
The most recent committee meeting was the first time the committee had formally seen the proposed review process. Members elected to treat it like a policy draft, meaning the board could have several readings of the proposal and the possibility of amending it before taking a vote.
That process is flexible, depending on the discussion the board will have about the proposal on Tuesday. The board could decide to advance the mascot review, or it could extend the deliberation across several more meetings.
That said, the upcoming meeting will include the usual public comment section, with each speaker getting about two minutes to discuss other issues.
Langkneckt does plan on allowing some time during that public comment period for people to talk about the mascot, but he is not suspending the usual business of the committee to hold a public forum about the mascot at this time.
The district also posted about the upcoming meeting and the mascot on its Facebook page.
“The school committee has a TFHS mascot review process on its agenda for next Tuesday night but there will be no public forum at that time as no process, nor even the decision to engage in one, has yet to be adopted.” The post read, in part. “If the district goes down this road we will follow a process that makes ample time and opportunity for the full range of perspectives to be heard. Judging from the level of social media activity already occurring it is clear that this topic brings many social, historical, and cultural issues to the surface that deserve fuller consideration than can be achieved through social media.”
Langkneckt said that while he does want to give time to all, he doesn’t want a debate between the two sides Tuesday.
“If there are representatives of other, as yet unheard opinions, I’ll consider adding some time but there’ll be no back and forth between speakers or groups.”
Since the proposal to drop the “Indians” mascot became known this month debate has erupted on social media, and online petitions arguing for keeping the mascot and getting rid of it have received hundreds of signatures, roughly 1,000 against the change and about 500 for, as of Wednesday.
The calls for removing the mascot stem from concerns that the imagery is racist, and does not honor the area’s Native Americans. The high school and the village are named after Capt. William Turner, who led troops into the battle where 300 Native Americans were killed on the ground that is now present day Gill.
The meeting is scheduled to be in the Turners Falls High School TV studio at 6:30 p.m.
Miranda Davis covers
Montague, Gill and Erving.
You can reach her at 413-772-0261 ext. 280 or mdavis@recorder.com.