When you sign, please specify in the comments if you are a previous, current, or future student at Sherando.

Like the recent courage shown by the Washington football team to remove its racist name and logo, this petition calls for the Sherando High School Warrior mascot to be changed. Sherando’s Warrior mascot mocks Native Americans and implicitly condones racial prejudice and discrimination against Native people. When this issue was addressed in 2016, John Lamanna, who was School Board Chairman at the time, said that the mascot was chosen by the students of Sherando. This refers to the 1,200 students who chose Sherando’s mascot in 1993; they picked because they would be attending the school in the future. Lamanna also said that if the mascot were to be changed, it must go through the students again. Because of this, this petition asks Sherando to discontinue the image of the Warrior.  When you sign, please specify in the comments if you are a previous, current, or future student at Sherando. This will be shared with the Sherando administration after gaining enough attention to show that this is a real issue.

Opening: A warrior represents the student body’s strength and perseverance, but this component of our school spirit also results in normalized racism through students wearing red face to football games in the name of school spirit. The Sherando Warrior mocks the history of Native people in America and encourages a violent and racist image of them.

History: This issue was addressed with the Frederick County School Board in 2016 when Native American people from our general area came to our School Board asking for the mascot to be changed. They were from the Shawnee, Pima, Abenaki, Lumbee, and Delaware nations. Our School Board took no action. It is time for us, the students, and the community of Sherando, to take action.  

Problems: The Warrior image is offensive, and it is harmful to the entire school community. Some students may not be aware of the offensive actions of wearing red-face in the name of school spirit, the use of a headdress, and other symbols that are spiritual for Native peoples. Keeping the mascot also has harmful psychological effects on Native and non-Native people. A report on the Washington Football Mascot by Michael A. Friedman, Ph.D. discusses how this stereotype has harmful psychological effects on Native and non-Native people. To summarize, the negative image reduces a Native person’s self-image, causing them to perform poorly in school or express low self-esteem. In fact, Native people suffer from significant social issues, including mental health, violence against women, drug and alcohol abuse, poor educational opportunities, and more. For non-Native people, the image perpetuates poor stereotypes and unintentionally condones negative actions toward Native people by others.

Closing: The mascot of Sherando High School must change before we celebrate 30 years since the school’s opening. It is completely possible to symbolize strength and perseverance in our student body’s character without putting it in a headdress. Every day that we keep the mascot is another day of excluding Native members of our community and contributing to racial prejudice and discrimination of Native people everywhere.

Sources:

https://www.winchesterstar.com/news/winchester/sherando-has-no-plans-to-change-its-warrior-mascot/article_1bf03d90-38ba-5563-8a1a-2441def4ee71.html
https://www.changethemascot.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/DrFriedmanReport.pdf
https://indianlaw.org/issues
https://www.mhanational.org/issues/native-and-indigenous-communities-and-mental-health
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/aic.pdf
http://www.ncai.org/proudtobe