Posted by [EMAIL PROTECTED] : From: "Robert Eurich" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> http://www.boston.com/dailynews/349/region/Towns_remain_divided_over_Reds:.shtml Towns remain divided over Redskin nickname By Associated Press, 12/15/99 22:10 DEERFIELD, Mass. (AP) The two-year fight over whether to dump the Frontier Regional Junior-Senior High School team nickname has outlasted numerous votes, student polls, lawsuits and now the chairman of the school committee. Blaming the wear and tear of the protracted debate over the Redskins nickname, Chairman Karl Koenigsbauer resigned from the Frontier Regional School Committee after the board put off a decision Tuesday. ''We got as far last night as a motion made and seconded to adopt the name Red Hawks,'' Koenigsbauer said Wednesday. ''It's frustrating.'' Still, he said he had decided to quit before the issue was postponed at the request of the student government. The students said they wanted another chance to express their opinion on the four proposed replacements: Red Hawks, Chiefs, Trailblazers and Red Wings. Students had been polled in 1997 and 1998, but many ignored the choices and wrote in Redskins, said Daniel Parker, president of the student council. Elizabeth Hollingsworth, who chairs the Save the Redskins Committee, did not return a telephone message Wednesday. Opponents of the Redskins nickname called it offensive and derogatory to American Indians. Supporters said it was a traditional nickname that had meant nothing more than school pride to generations of youngsters in four small farming towns settled during the French and Indian Wars. ''This issue has clearly divided the community and the divisions are fairly wide,'' Koenigsbauer said. Even a year-long cooling off period, after Redskins supporters agreed to drop a federal lawsuit, failed to ease feelings, he said. While the debate has raged here several schools, including Miami University in Ohio and Southern Nazarene University in Oklahoma, have dropped their Redskins nicknames. However, other schools, including Anderson High School in suburban Cincinnati, have voted to keep the nickname. The squabble began in the fall of 1997 and accelerated after the Frontier board voted 5-4 in December 1997 to drop the nickname Redskins supporters took the issue to Town Meetings. And then sued in federal court after residents in three of the towns, Deerfield, Sunderland and Whately, voted to keep Redskins, but the fourth, Conway, vetoed the move. Their suit challenged the constitutionality of the district giving all four of its member towns an equal vote when some towns have more registered voters. That issue remains unresolved, although the suit was dropped. Koenigsbauer has been on both sides of the issue. He said Wednesday that he felt the Redskins nickname was derogatory, but after residents in his town of Deerfield voted to keep the nickname he felt a responsibility to vote their wishes. However, he said, he had been prepared to vote to dump the nickname Tuesday night. ''The time has come for a decision,'' he said. ''Everybody, no matter what side of the issue they are on, feels the same way,'' said School Superintendent John Welch Robert's web site: <http://members.tripod.com/earnestman/1indexpage.htm> <<<<=-=-= =-=-=>>>> "We simply chose an Indian as the emblem. We could have just as easily chosen any uncivilized animal." Eighth Grade student writing about his school's mascot, 1997 <<<<=-= http://www.tdi.net/ishgooda/racial/ =-=>>>> <<<<=-=-=FREE LEONARD PELTIER!!!=-=-=>>>>
