TURNERS FALLS — After public comments and an extensive discussion by the board, a proposal to review the Turners Falls High School mascot was approved by the Gill-Montague Regional School District on Tuesday night.
The committee passed the proposal unanimously, with a plan to hold at least two public forums on the issue and focus on public participation and education before creating and approving a plan to change the mascot.
“I’m really glad that the process moved forward and I’m really hoping that there’s going to be an opportunity for native people to have their voices be heard,” Rhonda Anderson, a member of the Inupiaq-Athabaskan Native American tribe, said after the decision. She had spoken in favor of removing the mascot.
The approval of the proposal does not mean the mascot will necessarily change, but that the School Committee will now organize a more formal process for hearing all sides of the issue before deciding whether to change it.
The meeting was at times tense, with a crowd of at least 50 in attendance and members of the public on both sides speaking over each other and the committee. Public comments came from both those who want to keep the mascot and those who want to see it changed.
Committee members were in agreement on passing the proposal, and all members advocated for a lot of public input. While some members wanted to have a decision on the mascot by May 1 to make sure it stayed within their term limit, no deadline was agreed upon at the meeting.
“I think we need to not place a time limit on this, because there’s a lot of emotion surrounding this issue in town,” committee member Christina Postera said.
School Committee Chairman Mike Langknecht, in response to a question from the crowd, said the board hasn’t researched how other towns have handled this type of issue because they want to make sure the process fits the high school and Turners Falls.
“Our first priority is to get in touch with this community,” he said.
The decision to pass the proposal followed a lengthy public comment section, where Langknecht said he would prefer that comments and questions were kept to the process, not the debate to keep or change the mascot.
Jeremy Dillensneider, who organized the petition to keep the mascot, said during the meeting that he would like to keep the schools’ resources focused on the students’ education. He said he welcomes the public forums and looks forward to learning more from the other viewpoint.
“I want to see a dialogue. I think it’s healthy,” he said. “We’re all for education here.”
The room appeared split on support for keeping the mascot and support of changing it.
Nina Yagual, who was there in support of changing the mascot, called on the committee to consider the voices of those Native Americans who are saying the mascot is not appropriate.
“It should only take one native or indigenous person saying, ‘this is offensive’ for it to be removed,” she said.
The meeting comes after public debate was sparked, especially on social media, following the introduction of the policy proposal at the last School Committee meeting.
Since the initial presentation of the proposal at the last meeting, both sides created online petitions. The petition advocating for keeping the mascot has more than 1,100 signatures, and the petition to change the mascot has more than 600. The Nolumbeka Project, an area non-tribal Native American organization, has also weighed in, calling for the board to change the mascot.
The issue was originally brought to the committee last May when a group of community members addressed the committee on the anniversary of the Battle of Turner’s Falls.
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 Gill.
Those in favor of changing the mascot have argued that, given the historical context, it isn’t appropriate for a high school named after Turner to have the “Indians” as its mascot. They say that the Indian mascot is racist, and does not honor the Native Americans who lived in the area.
The group spoke to the School Committee for about 15 minutes during that meeting, and called for a year of education and outreach to the community about the issue.
The proposal, presented at the Sept. 13 meeting by School Superintendent Michael Sullivan and Langknecht, was a response to those concerns. The review process would allow for public hearings on the issue, where both sides would be allowed to speak and air concerns.
The final vote on whether or not the school will keep the mascot rests with the School Committee.
Going forward, the board has planned the first of the public forums to be in mid to late October.
Miranda Davis covers
Montague, Gill and Erving.
You can reach her at:
413-772-0261 ext. 280
or: mdavis@recorder.com