the state’s mascot ban violated Title VI<\/a>\u00a0because it barred the use of Native American mascots while allowing those “derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the ‘Dutchmen’ and the ‘Huguenots.'” The state was given 10 days to rescind the ban or face referral to the Department of Justice and possible loss of funding.\u00a0<\/p>\nThe state refused to do so and the case has since been sent on to the Justice Department.<\/p>\n
Zachary D. Schurin, a Connecticut attorney who has\u00a0studied mascot bans, said in the past Title VI had\u00a0generally been used in situations where\u00a0a student or staff member has “experienced a hostile environment.”<\/p>\n
“This is a new way to applying law…that doesn\u2019t have really a precedent in other cases involving school mascots and team names,” he said.<\/p>\n
Emma Hulse, education counsel at the New York Civil Liberties Union, said the Trump administration has offered “novel\u00a0and unfounded interpretations” of federal civil rights law in an effort to\u00a0eliminate state protections for marginalized communities.<\/p>\n
The tactic is also being used in disputes over transgender students, she said. Last month, the federal Education Department announced it had launched civil rights investigations into 18 “educational entities,” including the Bellmore-Merrick school district, for allegedly engaging in sex discrimination by allowing students to\u00a0participate in sports based on their gender identity,\u00a0rather than their biological sex.<\/p>\n
Last year, the department had threatened to pull funding from Maine over similar allegations.\u00a0<\/p>\n
Cutting funding is unusual, Hulse said. Historically, civil rights investigations would stretch over several years, ultimately ending in settlements.<\/p>\n
“I think the goal here is to force the state, to force school districts, into compliance,” she said.<\/p>\n
Supremacy conflict<\/p>\n
The federal Education Department\u00a0has said that it offered the Connetquot district a chance to enter into a resolution agreement that calls for the district to revert to its Thunderbirds name.<\/p>\n
The district said they are still reviewing the federal Education Department’s report.\u00a0<\/p>\n
While the federal agency has not said it would cut funding to the district if it does not comply,\u00a0experts say it is a possibility.<\/p>\n
“The district is obliged to follow both state and federal law … the consequence of not following the interpretation of federal law is they could risk losing federal funding and they can\u2019t afford that,” said\u00a0Graham, the Touro Law Center professor.<\/p>\n
Federal funding makes up an average of 5 to 10% of Long Island school districts\u2019 budgets, and goes toward\u00a0programs that assist low-income and special education students, as well as teacher training.<\/p>\n
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Tiffany Graham in her office in Central Islip. Credit: Newsday\/J. Conrad Williams Jr.<\/p>\n
Graham argued that something else could be at play as well.<\/p>\n
“Once the Trump administration issues this interpretation of Title VI, what they have really done is established a supremacy clause conflict between the federal law and state law,” she said. If it is “impossible” to comply with both, she said, “assuming the federal law is valid, the federal law wins.”<\/p>\n
Hulse, however, noted that disputes between federal and state law are “complex.”<\/p>\n
“There is traditionally a very heavy burden\u00a0to conclude, particularly in these areas\u00a0where there’s historically been a state responsibility for policing the issue in question,” she\u00a0said. “I don’t think there’s any kind of strong argument that the [federal] Department of Education’s interpretation of federal law preempts\u00a0state law.”<\/p>\n
But, she added, “It’s certainly true that they are trying to do this across issue areas.”<\/p>\n
Representatives for the federal Education Department did not return multiple requests for comment.<\/p>\n
The Native American Guardian’s Association, a North Dakota-based group,\u00a0supports the use of Native American imagery in schools. It has\u00a0partnered with the Massapequa school district to challenge the state’s ban.<\/p>\n
The organization’s attorney, Chap Petersen, said,\u00a0“Our position is that the state law … violates the 14th Amendment,” which\u00a0mandates that states provide equal protection under the law to all citizens. He added, “It clarifies one group of people, one ethnicity, as being unworthy of recognition.”\u00a0<\/p>\n
But Sandi Brewster-walker, executive director and government affairs officer for the Montaukett Indian Nation, said,\u00a0“The use of a Native American mascot will continue to dehumanize our Native people and does not honor us. The U.S. Department of Education weighing in on the issue is misleading and insulting, as well as a real mockery of our nation\u2019s civil rights laws.”<\/p>\n
State officials, meanwhile, are standing firm on the ban, despite challenges on the local and national level.<\/p>\n
State Education Department spokesman JP O’Hare called the federal government’s arguments “contradictory\u00a0and unpersuasive” and noted that numerous states have laws, regulations or policies that prohibit “stereotypical” Indigenous mascots.<\/p>\n
“There is no reason, other than advocacy by a few school boards on Long Island, that this rule…should be treated differently,” he wrote.<\/p>\n
Darwin Yanes\u00a0is a native Long Islander and Stony Brook University graduate who covers education. He previously covered\u00a0the Town of North Hempstead.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Connetquot school district faces an “impossible” choice, according to experts:\u00a0Should it keep its new nickname, the T-Birds,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":135640,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[57612,67,11874,36405,9,11,10,49,51,50,43680],"class_list":{"0":"post-135639","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-new-york","8":"tag-connetquot","9":"tag-education","10":"tag-high-school","11":"tag-local-education","12":"tag-new-york","13":"tag-new-york-headlines","14":"tag-new-york-news","15":"tag-new-york-state","16":"tag-new-york-state-headlines","17":"tag-new-york-state-news","18":"tag-trump-edu"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=135639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/135639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/135640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=135639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=135639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=135639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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