On October 5th 2021, the Shoreline School Board voted over zoom, with little community input, to remove the Shorewood Thunderbird mascot.  The vote was a hasty response to Washington State legislature HB 1356 banning the inappropriate use of Native American images as school mascots.  The legislation clearly allows the appropriate use of Native American mascots and encourages school districts and schools to work together and learn from local Native tribes – just as Shorewood High School did when the Thunderbird was originally chosen as Shorewood’s mascot. 

The School board and current Shorewood administration ignored and actively prevented efforts to explain the history and relationship between the first Shorewood High School classes with local tribes in choosing the Thunderbird in the mid 1970s. At that time, Shoreline resident Bill Holm, Professor of Art History and Curator of Northwest Coastal Indian Art at the Burke museum helped bring Shorewood students and local tribes together, suggesting the Thunderbird as mascot for the newly created Shorewood high school. 

Other schools in Washington state such as Tumwater High School, reached out to and worked with their local Native tribes and together decided to keep the Thunderbird as their mascot. 

It is not too late to let the Shoreline School Board know that you disagree with their decision and want them to thoughtfully and honestly engage with local Native American tribes, Shorewood students, alumni, and the broader Shorewood community.  Our mascot was originally chosen together with our local tribes.  Erasing this history has resulted in harm to the Shorewood community, severing ties between a generation of alumni and current students and with the entire greater Shorewood community.  But most of all, the school board neglected the opportunity to learn from our local native tribes, who expressed interest in working together with us but were ignored in the school board process.  The school board disregarded the relationships and teachings from the tribes that led to originally choosing the Thunderbird.  The school board also wasted time and money that the school district does not have on a new mascot, while proposing cutting teaching positions and educational priorities during a huge budget crisis.  

Sign this petition and please pass it on to other Shorewood alumni and community members so we can send the message to the school board that we want the Thunderbird and want to work with and honor our local Indigenous American tribes.

UPDATE!  PLEASE NOTE:  You do not need to donate or become a paid member of change.org for your signature to count on this petition.  We are NOT seeking donations, but rather want as many signatures as possible.  If we get into the thousands of supporters (and together, I believe we can!), we believe the school board and superintendent will take our views seriously.

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Please sign this petition and send to as many friends, family and community members as you can.  Thank you!