SHREWSBURY, Pa. — The Southern York County School Board voted last year to remove Susquehannock High School Warrior's Native American mascot after receiving a mixture of opinions from students and the community.
However, on Monday night, the school board decided to revisit that decision, a move which some members of the community favor.
"I'm here to request that you do not resign the old Warrior logo," said Trudy, a Shrewsbury Township resident. "Let's educate not eradicate. We want to retain our Warrior logo. It's a symbol of pride that honors and symbolizes our Native Americans."
Another Shewsbury resident expressed a similar opinion: "Changing the logo does nothing negative to our current students. In fact, it teaches them important lessons about empathy and inclusion."
On the other hand, others say changing the mascot design while also continuing to depict Native American imagery is meaningless to the cause; in their opinion, the name of the high school mascot along with the imagery should be changed.
"What I do hear is board members who want to keep a warhead mascot and continue to exploit Native Americans for selfish reasons," said one resident.
Meanwhile, Scott Cousins, the legal counsel for the Native American Guardianship Association, expressed his organization's support of the Warriors logo, saying that it isn't offensive to American Indians: "They fear that, as school districts start going through these processes, that the students in the school districts and the public schools will soon forget the history of the local Native American tribes."