Mascot battle in Killingly sparks political reckoning
Small town fractured over whether renaming ‘Redmen’ was a step toward fixing a racist wrong or a politically correct overcorrection
As temperatures dropped into the 30s, the Killingly High School football team glided toward a homecoming victory against the Stonington Bears. “Let’s go Redmen!” fans screamed as Killingly players charged toward the end zone. Each time they scored, a cannon fired into the night. By halftime, Killingly was leading, 27-0.
It was another Friday night game this fall, just like the ones many fans had attended for years as parents and, decades ago, as high school students themselves.
“We’ve got a lot of integrity,” said James Lomba, a 47-year-old mason who once played football for Killingly. “That’s what makes us Redmen.”
Except they weren’t Redmen anymore. They were Red Hawks.
In July, the Killingly Board of Education decided to eliminate the high school’s longtime
mascot, the Redmen — depicted as a Native American figure wearing a headdress — following heated public debates and opposition from the Massachusetts-based Nipmuc Nation, which has historical ties to northeastern Connecticut. Killingly settled on “Red Hawks” in October.
Even after the new name was selected, the issue continued to fester among residents in this historic mill town of 17,000 in Connecticut’s “Quiet Corner,” where 2,219 active voters are Republicans, 2,616 are Democrats, and 5,680 are unaffiliated, according to the Connecticut Secretary of State. In the 2016 election, 57% of voters in town supported Donald Trump, while 36% backed Hillary Clinton.
To some Killingly residents, the mascot debate was a necessary reckoning with a racist symbol. But for many others, it represented something more unsettling about this new era of political divisions. For them, the loss of the Redmen demonstrated the threat that political correctness — a cultural trend frequently vilified by President Trump — posed to town values. As municipal elections approached, the Redmen became the rallying cry of the Republican Town Committee, which warned in one video that the renaming was “just the beginning of the elimination of our town’s traditions and culture if Democrats take our seats.”
In turn, many Democrats saw focus on the mascot as a political ploy used to stoke the fire of an uneventful election.
“A lot of unaffiliated voters may lean one way or the other but will come out if you give them a wedge issue,” said Jeff Buchbinder, the head of the Killingly Democratic Town Committee and a school board member who advocated for the change.
But Killingly fans’ resentment lingered at the high school’s first home game as the Red Hawks on Nov. 1. To Lomba, the mascot change was “disrespect toward us.
Tammy Wakefield, 50, a Republican member of the town council, said she did not think the mascot was offensive — and she predicted backlash at the polls. “I think they’re going to pay the price come Tuesday,” she said of town Democrats.
Other Connecticut towns have quietly rebranded their high school mascots; in June, the Manchester Indians also became the Red Hawks. But in Killingly, anger over the loss of the Redmen propelled Republicans to a supermajority on the town council and school board — and revealed the depth of the town’s political and cultural fractures.
A tradition with racial connotations
This past spring, Terren Allen, 18, realized just how difficult it would be to spark discussions about race at Killingly High School.
A 2019 graduate and student representative on the school board, Allen described Killingly as a community of “service and acceptance” where she had found a “plethora of opportunities and success.” But in the wake of Trump’s election, she saw signs of change. Confederate flags became more visible on classmates’ hats and shirts, said Allen, who was often the only person of color in class. (Killingly is 91.5% white, according to the U.S. Census.)
Allen and another other student representative, Bryce Bentinck, decided to put pressure on the mascot before they graduated. “As people of color that serve in such a high position, it wasn’t right for us to not stand up for other people of color and just accept it as our mascot,” she said.
One of the earliest references to the Killingly “Redmen” comes from a 1916 edition of the Norwich Bulletin, according to town historian Margaret Weaver. During the 1940s, the high school teams were referred to as “the Red and Whites” and later as the “Red Men.” By the 1950s, the mascot was decidedly the “Redmen,” as it stayed for the next six decades.
The Nipmucs’ ancestral homeland spans northeastern Connecticut, south central Massachusetts, and northwestern Rhode Island, including the area that is now Killingly, according to state archaeologist Nicholas Bellatoni. He added that the racial connotations of names like “redskins” and “redmen” date back centuries.
Though the mascot had come under scrutiny before, the debate gained traction for the first time this year. In March, representatives from the local chapter of the NAACP voiced concerns about racial bullying to the school board, reporting that a Killingly student had been pushed in front of a parked school bus, pelted with fruit, and repeatedly called racial slurs.
Superintendent Steven Rioux said that the district fully investigates bullying complaints, though he declined to say whether any students had been disciplined in that incident, citing student confidentiality. But he said that following the allegations, the district expanded training and programming related to diversity and prejudice.
“These conversations are important, as the issue of prejudice in all aspects of society is real, and we are taking proactive steps to address these problems,” he said in an email. Rioux noted a districtwide staff training on diversity, programs to support transgender students, a school-wide assembly about racism in the fall of 2018, and a school event about multiculturalism in partnership with the local NAACP this past November.
Still, some on the school board felt that the racial bullying issue and the Redmen mascot were linked.
“We could not deal with one and disregard the other simply because it was ‘tradition,’” said Lydia Rivera-Abrams, a Democratic member of the school board.
Allen and Bentinck conducted a school-wide survey to gather opinions about the mascot. The results showed that the majority of students wanted to keep the Redmen, but the majority of teachers and faculty wanted to change it, according to Allen. Many surveys were also returned with discriminatory comments, she said, including a suggestion to change the Redmen to a slur against AfricanAmericans.
“It’s obvious that that’s why we needed that change,” Allen said.
At a packed June meeting about the mascot, Killingly residents staked out the opposing sides. Some argued that the Redmen was a racist stereotype that should be eliminated. Others said the mascot was a symbol of town pride that was meant to honor Native Americans.
Eric Gould, who spoke as a representative of the Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council, argued that it was not a matter of whether Native Americans were offended by the mascot. “It’s a matter of the perception that it honors us. And you can’t honor someone if they don’t want it. On behalf of the Nipmuc Nation, no thanks.”
In response to the Nipmuc Tribal Council, the school board decided to eliminate the mascot in late July, spurring outcry from some that the decision had been outsourced.
The rebranding would cost about $40,000, according to Rioux, with $27,000 toward new football uniforms, which would have been replaced anyway, and roughly $10,000 for removing Redmen references from the school gymnasium.
Allen said she was surprised by the vitriol she heard about the mascot issue, long after it had been decided.
“I was scared to leave my house for a long period of time because I didn’t know who was going to come up to me, what they were going to say or do, especially when they have such strong opinions on something that demeans a person of color,” she said. “What does that mean for how they feel about me?”
‘The radical left agenda’
On Election Day, Killingly residents hurried through a cold rain to vote in the high school gymnasium, where the Redmen logo still adorned the floor. Under the Democratic Town Committee tent in the parking lot, RiveraAbrams, 72, who was vying to retain her seat on the school board, emphasized that there were a range of issues at stake in the election.
“People will speak with their vote and share their priorities,” she said. “And whether that is curbside garbage or the budget or teachers’ contracts, there’s a lot of things.”
Just across the parking lot, Jason Muscara, a 20-year-old candidate for the Killingly School Board, stood under the Republican Town Committee tent. He and other Republican candidates, many wearing Redmen sweatshirts, chatted as they ate beef stew from a slow cooker.
Muscara, a student at Quinebaug Valley Community College and 2017 Killingly graduate, announced his candidacy at the heated June meeting about the mascot, pledging to end “the indoctrination of our youth.”
When reports emerged this fall that he had served as vice president of the Connecticut chapter of the American Guard — an organization deemed a “general hate” group by the Southern Poverty Law Center — Muscara said he had joined believing it was a “patriotic organization,” but left when he grew “uncomfortable” with some of its members.
“I’m not a white supremacist. I’m not a racist. I’m not a homophobe,” he told The Courant in October.
On Election Day, Muscara said that the mascot issue remained a political priority for him. The renaming represented the “radical left agenda” that town Democrats were “pushing on everyone,” he said. If the mascot disappeared from the high school, he worried, would the Pledge of Allegiance or the American flag?
“Anything could happen,” he said.
Many Republican candidates praised Trump, saying that he shared their political values.
“Nationally, a lot of the things that Trump has done are good. But in this state, it’s never in the right direction. It’s always about increasing taxes and fees,” said Norm Ferron, 63, a Republican school board candidate and shop owner.
Some felt they knew where Trump would stand on Killingly’s mascot controversy.
“He would be against it,” said Kevin Kertulla, 58, a Republican candidate for town council. “I don’t think he’s in favor of all this political correctness stuff.”
Republican mandate
In an election widely perceived as a referendum on the mascot change, voters delivered a resounding victory to town Republicans.
Voter turnout was about 18% in the 2017 municipal election, according to Janice Thurlow, Killingly’s Democratic registrar. Two years later, it was 26%, the highest it had been since 2008. Though school board or councilat-large positions are usually secured with 700 to 900 votes, Killingly Republicans swept their races with upward of 1,800 votes, claiming a super-majority on the town council and school board. Muscara won handily with 1,748 votes; Rivera-Abrams retained her spot on the board with just 838.
“Some people who don’t generally vote in municipal elections came out in droves, in part to punish members of the school board,” said Brandon Gaudreau, 21, a Killingly High School graduate who studies political science at Eastern Connecticut State University. His father, Kevin Gaudreau, a Republican, was elected to the Board of Assessment Appeals.
Buchbinder, a Democratic board member and an outspoken critic of the Redmen mascot, lost his seat. He said that in Killingly, advocating for the mascot change meant “political suicide.”
But it remains to be seen whether the Redmen will return to Killingly.
The purchase of new football uniforms has been put on hold until the spring, Rioux said, given that the football season is almost over and “due to the controversy surrounding the change in our high school moniker.”
The first meeting of the school board — which now holds a 6-3 Republican majority — is scheduled for early December.
“The mascot issue is going to be discussed again,” Muscara said. “I don’t know what’s going to happen, but I would be in favor of reinstating the mascot.”
Though some have suggested bringing the mascot issue to a town vote, the mascot is technically a school board matter that falls beyond the purview of the town council.
Gaudreau says that bringing back the Redmen could be “cathartic” for Killingly. Others are not so optimistic.
“If we’re having a referendum on whether or not we believe that a majority-white town should be able to say what’s racist and what’s not, we’re out of our minds,” Buchbinder said.
Terren Allen, now a freshman at Southern New Hampshire University, said that the election results concerned her.
“It’s disappointing that an entire community of people elected these candidates just because of a mascot,” she said. “This whole process has made me question the values of my community members, the people I’ve known for most of my life.”
But even if Killingly reclaims the Redmen, a whole other slew of issues face the newly-elected officials: the day-to-day of local governance.
“It’s in the Republican court about what direction they take the town in,” Gaudreau said. “Are we going to keep to our promises, constrain the budget, make the school system more efficient and attractive, or are we just going to sit on our hands and do nothing after the mascot issue is resolved?”
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