At 1:07 am last night, the Loudoun County School Board UNANIMOUSLY approved removing the Raider mascot from Loudoun County High School!! This has been a long time coming. People have been trying to enact this change for over 40 years. And we weren’t sure if this would be yet another failed attempt. All we could do was keep pushing for what we believed was right, and hope this time would be different. Thank you to everyone who spoke in favor of the change at the meeting, and to everyone who sent in emails. This change would not have happened without the groundswell of support from everyone. So what happens now? Loudoun County High School will now discuss with students, staff, and alumni on what the new mascot should be. The Board will request additional funds from the Board of Supervisors so the school does not need to pay for the change. This will all happen by the end of the summer. We hope that you will continue to work towards ending systemic racism in Loudoun County Public Schools. Getting confederate imagery out of schools is a step in the right direction, but it does not change the appalling actions and attitudes People of Color continue to face. We have to keep going, keep pushing. Ways you can continue to fight systemic racism: - Speak/Email the LC School Board to adopt and continue to flesh out the proposed LCPS Action Plan to Combat Systemic Racism - Join the Loudoun chapter of the NAACP - Start your own petition on an issue Thank you again so much. Signing off, - Deirdre Dillon & A.J. Jelonek