School drops Redskins nickname

It took a marathon school board meeting. It followed months of divisive debate, including two student walkouts. It came after the student newspaper opted for change for similar reasons.

“It” is another high school dropping its longtime “Redskins” mascot, with this one in Idaho proving a particularly contentious exercise.

As reported by the Washington Post, Teton High School (Driggs, Idaho), which sits just outside Yellowstone Park and the Wyoming border, announced Tuesday evening it would retire its “Redskins” mascot at an undetermined date in the near future. The decision followed a formal school board vote in which four of five board members voted to discontinue the Redskins moniker, which has been in use at the school since 1929.

The vote followed four hours of contentious public debate played out during the school board meeting, which was held in the gym of an elementary school. According to the Post, students wearing shirts adorned with “Save Our Redskins” walked out of the gym immediately after the vote.

While the process to change the mascot was initially sparked by parental concern and a proactive editorial from the school newspaper — which was previously called “The War Cry” — two of Idaho’s largest Native American tribes also supported the drive to change.

The Shoshone-Bannock and Nez Percé tribes both lobbied for the school to change its Redskins mascot. That included ShoshoneBannock Tribal Chairman Ladd Edmo testifying against the use of the Redskins mascot before the school board.