In school sports or other competitions, students are often identified not just by the school’s name but also by its logo or mascot.
That’s why rebranding was a big overhaul – and not always well-received – at many school districts when the state Education Department said Indigenous names, logos and mascots had to be removed.
Those changes had to be made by the end of the 2024-25 school year to keep receiving state aid.
“We tried to respect the history. And you can see in the goggles, the ship is the USS Oriskany,” Oriskany Central School District superintendent Gregory Cuthbertson said about the district’s mascot.
The mascot changed from the Oriskany Redskins to the Oriskany Skyhawks. The rebranding was one of the first tasks the superintendent took on.
“Very proud of the logo that we came up with just because it was an involved process with everybody. We took feedback from everybody, and we felt we came up with an appropriate logo that respected the history of Oriskany, but also towards the future of what we want it to become,” he said.
Regardless of opinions on the school’s logo and regardless of the cost to change it, Oriskany was one of many school districts that needed to rebrand to keep receiving state aid.
“We’re a school that relies on state aid and to say that we’re not going to be able to get that state aid was just really not an option for us. So, our hand was forced to do that,” Cuthbertson said.
As legal challenges surround the regulation have been brought forth, there is an update.
According to the state Education Department, “legal challenges brought by Long Island school boards against the Board of Regents regulation addressing Indigenous mascots have been unsuccessful.” But it added, “the Department will recommend that the Board of Regents leave decisions regarding employee clothing, including apparel displaying offensive Indigenous imagery, to local school districts, consistent with how other employee attire and personnel decisions are handled.”
Oliver Roberts, an attorney for the Massapequa School District, calls this recommendation “a huge win.”
At Oriskany, where the changes have been made, the recommendation, even if it is adopted, would need to go to the school board and isn’t expected to have much of an impact.
“I think for the most part, our staff have kind of moved on. We’re looking at what it’s going to be in the future. So, but again, these are preliminary things that are going on right now. So we really don’t have a real scope of what this is going to mean,” said Cuthbertson.
The Sauquoit Valley Central School District also had to rebrand.
Their superintendent said he would “be comfortable leaving decisions about employee attire to local districts.”