Last week marked the deadline for California schools to comply with a state law that prohibits the use of culturally insensitive terms for Indigenous groups as school names or mascots.
EdSource reports more than two dozen schools are named after Native American tribes, and potentially hundreds use the blacklisted terms for their mascots.
California became the first state in the nation to ban the racial slur Redskins as a school or team name or mascot in 2015 under the initial California Racial Mascots Act. By 2017, schools were prohibited from using the term.
Across the state, some schools have retired their school or mascot names in compliance with the prohibition, meant to ensure Native American culture is not mocked or misrepresented. Other schools have used an exception to the revised law that allows them to retain names, such as Chieftain or Apache, with the consent of local tribes.
Assemblymember James Ramos, a San Bernardino Democrat, said several Native American students had petitioned their schools to change their Native American-themed mascot names prior to the 2024 iteration of the law, but were turned down by school boards or administrators.
Many school districts, added Ramos, are still not including the Native American perspective.
