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SKOWHEGAN — School
officials say they plan to talk to the district’s lawyer next month about how
to deal with issues surrounding the ongoing “Indians” mascot controversy at the
same time that a coach’s Facebook post showing a “scalp towel” has reignited
debate about school policies.
School Administrative District
54 Superintendent Brent Colbry said the district’s lawyer, from Drummond
Woodsum in Portland, met with the school board in May to discuss “general
advice” about how to deal with the contentious issues of using Indians as a
sports mascot and nickname. Also in May, following months of heated debate, the
school board narrowly voted to keep the Indians name despite calls from Indian
tribe representatives to stop the practice.
The law firm will
meet again with the administration in October as a continuation of that general
discussion, but not in connection with the Facebook post, Colbry said.
Meanwhile, the latest eruption
in the controversy is prompting more school policy questions. Baseball coach
Rick York posted on Aug. 6 a Facebook picture of a scalp towel, which was used
as an accessory during school sports events in the 1980s and has a picture of a
hand holding a bunch of hair. The towel and other “Indian” caricatures were
done away with by the school board a few years later.
The photo was publicly posted,
tagging school board member Jennifer Poirier, with the message, “Probably
shouldn’t wear this tonight … no I won’t.”
Poirier responded, “LOL
probably shouldn’t” with a smiley face.
It was posted the same day
members of Maine’sIndian tribes and their supporters planned to appearat
Skowhegan’s River Fest to set up an informational booth to call again for
removing the nickname. Members of the four tribes of the Wabanaki Nation have
opposed the school’s “Indians” nickname, saying its use is degrading and that
they are people who still live in Maine, not mascots.
York, in emailed comments
Wednesday, said he was sorry and didn’t mean to offend anyone with the post,
which was still up on his Facebook page Wednesday night.
“That picture is out there (to)
remind you that towel is circa 1987. Times have changed,” he wrote.
York’s Facebook post was
pointed out to school officials in a letter from Maulian Smith, who is leading
the effort to have the school district stop using Indians as a nickname. A
member of the Penobscot tribe, she is the founder of the Not Your Mascot Maine
Chapter Facebook page.
“I understand that these were
something the booster club used to sell about 20 years ago,” Smith, of Indian
Island, wrote of the scalp towel. “Certainly times change, but to have people
in your school administration posting pictures of such a racist and offensive
image and then joking about it greatly concerns myself, my tribe, and many
parents and citizens in your own community.”
Colbry said that because York
isn’t a school district employee, he can’t do anything about the post. The
superintendent said he has spoken to Tim Downing, chairman of the SAD 54 board,
and to Don Finley, the school’s athletic director, about the matter.
“There’s not much really we
could do about that. Obviously, that happened. We’re concerned about it too.
It’s not a good thing to have happen,” Colbry said Tuesday. “Going forward,
there will be talks this fall with the district’s lawyer about how do we avoid
those kinds of situations from happening.”
Downing responded to Smith that
the school board seeks to “appropriately address” all issues involving the
school system.
“That being said, due to
confidentiality laws, we can’t discuss or divulge specific personnel issues in
public,” Downing wrote. “I can tell you that I have the utmost confidence that
the issues raised are being addressed in a professional manner and that the end
result will be a heightened awareness on appropriate public discourse.”
Downing wouldn’t respond to
requests for comment.
Colbry said York is a
contracted athletic coach for the baseball season and not an employee of the
school district and that the Facebook conversation was a private one and that
“the only policy we have is that if somebody were to use school computers to engage
in something that is offensive, that would be an issue.”
While Colbry termed the
conversation private and York said he “sent the picture” to a former Skowhegan
classmate — Poirier — “and no one else,” the privacy settings on the post are
public, allowing anyone to see it.
In addition to Poirier’s
response, others made jokes about the towel. All the responses said “LOL,”
which is digital parlance for “laugh out loud.”
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