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MASSAPEQUA, N.Y. -- New York is discriminating against a schoolhouse territory that refuses to get escaped of its Native American main mascot and could look a Justice Department probe oregon hazard losing national funding, President Donald Trump’s apical acquisition authoritative said Friday.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon, connected a sojourn to Massapequa High School connected Long Island, said an probe by her bureau has determined that authorities acquisition officials violated Title VI of the national civilian rights instrumentality by banning the usage of Native American mascots and logos statewide.
The department's civilian rights bureau recovered the authorities prohibition is discriminatory due to the fact that names and mascots derived from different radical oregon taste groups, specified arsenic the “Dutchmen” and the “Huguenots,” are inactive permitted.
McMahon described Massapequa's chiefs mascot arsenic an “incredible” practice of Native American enactment arsenic she made the announcement backed by dozens of students and section officials successful the precocious schoolhouse gymnasium.
“The Trump Administration volition not basal idly by arsenic authorities leaders effort to destruct the past and civilization of Native American tribes,” the erstwhile longtime CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment said.
McMahon said her section volition beryllium asking the authorities to voluntarily motion a solution rescinding its Native American mascot prohibition and allowing districts to proceed utilizing the mascot of their choosing.
The solution would besides see an apology to tribes, acknowledging that the authorities discriminated against Native Americans and “attempted to erase Native American history,” the section said.
JP O’Hare, a spokesperson for the New York acquisition department, dismissed McMahon’s sojourn arsenic “political theater” that disrupted students’ people time.
He besides said Massapequa is doing a “grave disservice” to its students by ignoring facts and refusing to consult with section tribes astir their concerns implicit the mascot.
“These representatives volition archer them, arsenic they person told us, that definite Native American names and images perpetuate antagonistic stereotypes and are demonstrably harmful to children,” O’Hare said successful a statement. “If we genuinely privation to grant our Native American people, we volition thatch our students the existent past of the area’s Indigenous radical and however they precocious our civilization – alternatively than perpetuating outdated and disproven myths.”
Trump ordered the national acquisition department, which helium has moved to dismantle, to launch an inquiry into the quality past month. The determination has made the coastal suburb an improbable flashpoint successful the enduring debate implicit the place of Indigenous imagery successful American sports.
Massapequa, which is astir 40 miles (64 kilometers) eastbound of Manhattan, has for years fought a state mandate to discontinue Native American sports names and mascots.
But its suit challenging the state’s 2023 prohibition connected law grounds was dismissed by a national justice earlier this year.
State acquisition officials, who person been trying to region offending mascots and squad names for much than 2 decades, gave districts until the extremity of this schoolhouse twelvemonth to perpetrate to replacing them oregon hazard losing acquisition funding.
Schools could beryllium exempt from the mandate if they gained support from a section Native American tribe, but Massapequa ne'er sought specified permission, authorities officials person said.
Residents who enactment keeping the mascot person argued the representation has been a portion of the community’s individuality for generations and is meant to grant its Native American past.
The municipality is named aft the Massapequa, who were portion of the broader Lenape, oregon Delaware, radical who inhabited the woodlands of the Northeastern U.S. and Canada for thousands of years earlier being decimated by European colonization.
But indigenous residents connected Long Island and elsewhere successful New York person called Massapequa’s mascot problematic arsenic it depicts a Native American antheral wearing a headdress that was typically worn by tribes successful the American Midwest, but not successful the Northeast.
The cheery mascot besides obscures Massapequa’s bequest of unit against Native Americans, which includes the tract of a massacre successful which scores of Native men, women and children were killed by Europeans successful the 1600s, Native American activists person said.
Massapequa, which is roughly 90% white, has agelong been a blimpish bastion fashionable with New York City constabulary and firefighters.
Trump visited the municipality past twelvemonth to attend the wake of a New York City constabulary serviceman and has made predominant visits to Long Island arsenic it has shifted Republican.
Comedian Jerry Seinfeld, Hollywood’s Baldwin brothers and the Long Island’s alleged Gilgo Beach serial killer are besides among Massapequa High’s notable alums.
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Follow Philip Marcelo astatine twitter.com/philmarcelo.
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