Woonsocket and Ponaganset high schools still have mascots that are harmful caricatures of Native American culture. As the Sunrise RI Youth hub, we aim to confront these regressive depictions in order to progress beyond the damage that these "mascots" uphold. Sign this petition to take a stand against these depictions and let your voice be heard. 

Woonsocket High School's mascot is the Villa Novans. With bright red skin and feathered headpiece, this depiction reintroduces and normalizes harmful stereotypes to young students. Ponaganset high school's mascot, the Chieftain, also displays harmful imagery that has the same negative impression on students.

“Although most people in the U.S. do not perceive Native American mascots as problematic, all of the academic studies undertaken to study the psychosocial effects of these mascots demonstrate either direct negative effects on Native Americans or that these mascots activate, reflect, and/or reinforce stereotyping and prejudice among non-Native persons,” said the authors of a study conducted in the Race, Ethnicity, and Education Journal. 

This is a reminder that in Rhode Island we live on stolen Narragansett, Niantic, and Wampanoag land. 

For more information:

https://indiancountrytoday.com/news/study-finds-only-harmful-effects-from-native-themed-mascots 

https://insights.som.yale.edu/insights/when-the-school-mascot-is-native-american-stereotype