Butt out, Beacon Hill

For better or worse the town of Tewksbury last year decided, after a heated public debate and a vote of the local school committee, to retain its high school team name — the Redmen. Dissatisfied with that outcome a group of local folks is now pushing to ban any Native American references in any team name or logo in any Massachusetts public school.

What a waste of the Legislature’s time.

Now, that isn’t to discount the strong feelings some folks have about a name they consider offensive — and in Tewksbury, with good reason. Unlike the Mohawks, Sachems or Warriors of other communities, the throwback “Redmen” is a particularly odious choice.

But this issue was already litigated locally — as it should have been. Inviting the state to step in and referee such a dispute, to apply the standards of one group of residents in one town to every city and town, is just wrongheaded.

The MetroWest Daily News on Sunday reported on one school district that would be forced by such a law to abandon its high school team name, the Tomahawks. The chairman of the Algonquin Regional High School school committee told the News that the school debated the issue 20 years ago, forming a study committee and consulting with Native American groups, before opting to retain the name (the logo is generally depicted as two tomahawks crossed over each other; no “tomahawk chop” stuff here). So why should some senator from Cape Cod or rep from the Berkshires meddle with that?

Sen. Barbara L’Italien (D-Andover) filed the bill at the request of a group of Tewksbury constituents, though she has not taken a position on it herself. In addition to clogging the works on Beacon Hill, it is an invitation to more overreach by the Legislature, and it shouldn’t be taken seriously.