Shout out to all westwood students and kids who are going to attend! The current mascot of Westwood is a warrior, depicting a stereotypical image of a Native American. This is image is hurtful and prejudicial to anyone of the race. I am attending Westwood in a few years, and this is disrespectful to members of my family that are Native American.

In addition to the mascot, our school also appropriates Native American culture physically. Our football team runs out of a tee pee before games, and people can be seen wearing outfits that are insulting to Native American culture. I will include a picture of the following as well.

We would like to have the mascot changed to an animal or symbol that doesn’t appropriate Native American culture, or any for that matter. We would also like the racist actions at this school relating to the mascot stopped as well as being acknowledged as cultural appropriation.You can change the future generations of Westwood by helping us switch our outdated mascot.