Editorial: Don't force student newspaper to use racist mascot

Non-Native American schools across the nation have long debated whether to keep using American Indian mascots, images and athletic team names. In Langhorne, Pennsylvania, the issue has taken a rather autocratic turn that should serve as a nudge to schools everywhere to abandon racist depictions of Indian nations people.

The editorial board for the Playwickian, the student newspaper for Neshaminy High School, has decided it will no longer publish the word “redskins” — its school’s mascot — on its pages. Considering the oppression and forced assimilation of American Indians in both recent and past history, and the fact that the word, at best, presents a harmful stereotype of a diverse culture, and, at worst, is a hateful racial slur, the Playwickian has cause to drop it. It has editorial discretion.

But school officials apparently don’t see it that way. In fact, they want to force the student newspaper to use the word. Recently, a Neshaminy School Board committee approved a policy to prohibit the paper from banning it. The school board is expected to vote later this month whether to finalize the policy.

To their credit, the students aren’t backing down.