Erie School Board urges more talks, tables proposal to retire Native American mascot for East MS

A pause has been reached in the fight over the mascot for the East Middle School Warriors.

The Erie School Board has tabled a resolution that would have retired the Native American image that symbolizes the school.

The 5-4 vote to put the resolution on hold came on Wednesday night, after the school directors heard from a dozen speakers who urged them to keep the mascot — a Native American warrior wearing a headdress.

The School Board a year ago also took no action on the mascot in response to calls to remove it as racist. The push to get ride of the mascot comes as the Black Lives Matter movement has spotlighted sculptures, building names and other public artifacts linked to racism.

The latest resolution in the Erie School District, like the proposal from 2021, would have discontinued the Native American mascot but kept the Warriors name, a detail that appeared to have been lost on some of the speakers on Wednesday night.

The speakers were largely alumni of East High School, the predecessor of East Middle School, on Atkins Street, near the intersection of East Sixth Street and East Avenue.

A few speakers said they were upset that the Warriors name was in jeopardy along with the image of the mascot.

"We will always be East High Warriors. I am a Warrior for life," said one speaker, Joseph Currier, who said he attended Erie High in the late 1970s and early 1980s. "The name will live on."

A majority of the nine school directors expressed concerns that the Native American mascot is racist and must go — the main part of the resolution, whose sponsor is School Director Jay Breneman, who took office in December.

But a majority of the school directors also said they wanted to hold community meetings to discuss, with students and parents, the fate of the East Middle School mascot and how to replace it.

The meetings, the directors said, should also include a discussion over whether to change school names, such as that for Woodrow Wilson Middle School, named after the U.S. president with a racist legacy. Wilson led the segregation of federal offices and spoke favorably of the Ku Klux Klan.

An issue rekindled: Should East Middle School's Native American mascot stay or go? Erie School Board revisits debate

In an effort to salvage his resolution, Breneman proposed amending it to eliminate the section that would have retired the East Middle School mascot immediately. The amended resolution would have kept a section of his original resolution calling for community meetings.

That section would have required the school district administration to "engage in a series of public discussions regarding the appropriateness of mascots and building names," with a report to the School Board in September 2023.

But the majority of the school directors decided to table the original resolution in its entirety, with a pledge to follow up later. The board established no timeline for when to ask for the original resolution to be taken off the table, which would restart the debate over the fate of the mascot.

Voting to table

School Director Rosemary Sheridan, a former teacher who said she started her career at East High, moved to table the resolution. She suggested that the board discuss it at its upcoming annual retreat.

Statewide issue: Should PA ban Native American mascots in schools? This state bill would do so

"It's obvious that we all have concerns about it," Sheridan said. "We are changing things. Our minds are not computing it. So, I would suggest that we table this, go back when we have our retreat, talk about it, come up with a resolution and then bring it forward."

School Director Sumner Nichols seconded the motion to table. Voting to table were Sheridan, Nichols, Gwendolyn Cooley, board President Lori Pickens and board Vice President John Harkins.

Voting against the motion to table were Breneman, Daria Devlin, Lauren Gillespie and Leatra Tate. They said that they wanted to have a resolution to make sure the meetings occur on the mascots and school names.

"This is where the proof is in the pudding," Breneman said of his resolution. "This shows to the community that we are going to have these conversations."

Only one school director, Harkins, defended the image and said removing it would cause more harm than good.

He highlighted that the Warriors name and Native American mascot was also associated with East High School, dedicated in 1921. A new East High School opened at the present location in 1998 and became East Middle School as part of the Erie School District's budget-driven reconfiguration in 2017.

"There is an emotional trauma on the alumni, the generations that went through here and the staff that worked here," Harkins said at the meeting. "There is more trauma on them, as I see it, than any trauma that can be solved that is alleged for Native American people. I don't hear it or see it."

'Unnecessary drama' or 'an opportunity'?

The Erie School Board's meeting on Wednesday night, at East Middle School, its usual meeting spot, lasted about 2 hours and 15 minutes. The board spent about half the meeting dealing with the mascot issue, listening to the 12 pro-mascot speakers for about 35 minutes and discussing the issue for another 35. About 45 people attended the meeting and listened to the speakers and much of the board debate.

All of the speakers supported keeping the image of the Native American as the mascot of East Middle School. Some also said that the School Board should focus on other issues, including dealing with the COVID-19 pandemic's effect on the district and its more than 10,000 students.

"The intent of the East Middle School Warriors is to honor our Native American population," said one of the speakers, Tom Spagel, an East High alumnus and a former Erie School Board member. He said the push to retire the mascot seemed to be "an individual political move" that would "create unnecessary drama."

Spagel wore a T-shirt with the East logo on the front and the saying "We Bleed Scarlet and Grey" on the back, a reference to East's school colors. After two four-year terms, Spagel went off the School Board after he declined to run for reelection in November.

Another former School Board member, Tyler Titus, has asked the School Board to retire the East mascot. Titus, who also declined to run for reelection in November, addressed the school directors on the issue at its monthly study session last week. In January 2021, when he was president of the School Board, Titus also proposed retiring the mascot, but that proposal went nowhere due to lack of board support.

Previous discussion: Erie School Board president gets little support to change East MS Native American mascot

A year later, with four new Erie school directors, including Breneman, elected in November, the Native American mascot at East appears to be on its way out eventually, based on the stance of a majority of the School Board. What is unresolved is when the board will vote on the issue again.

Breneman's resolution, "gives us an opportunity to move forward in a way that honors and respects folks of all backgrounds," said Leatra Tate, one of the school directors who voted against tabling the resolution.

She said approving the proposal to retire the mascot would show that the Erie School District "focuses on equity" and how equity should be "embedded in all forms and systems."

Contact Ed Palattella at epalattella@timesnews.com. Follow him on Twitter @ETNpalattella.

This article originally appeared on Erie Times-News: Erie School Board tables proposal to retire East MS's Native American mascot