The student-designed mural on the bagel shop next to Massapequa High School is being replaced by a new version that will still depict the school\u2019s mascot, a Native American chief.<\/p>\n
Students were painting the new mural, which is not on school property,\u00a0on Monday morning and had already completed the school’s logo, which includes the mascot and its feathered headdress.<\/p>\n
“The district is excited for the new mural which continues to represent Massapequa\u2019s pride, traditions and hope for a better future,” Massapequa superintendent William Brennan said in a statement to Newsday.<\/p>\n
Massapequa has not retired its Chiefs mascot after the state\u00a0Board of Regents voted unanimously\u00a0to ban Native American team names, logos and mascots at public schools in April 2023. The state and some Native American groups\u00a0said the mascots and images perpetuate harmful stereotypes, and the state ordered districts to commit to retiring them,\u00a0or face the potential loss of state funding and removal of elected school officials. Districts were given until the end of the 2024-25 school year to remove the imagery. The mandate affected 13 districts on Long Island, most of which have taken steps to retire their mascots and names.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The state education department did not respond to requests for comment.<\/p>\n
Bagel Boss owner Jeff Grossfeld said he thinks the mural is a great thing for the community.<\/p>\n
\u201cI love it,\u201d Grossfeld told Newsday by phone on Monday. \u201cIt\u2019s a win-win. Kids are doing a nice job, they take pride in it, it\u2019s good for the community and it makes it look nice, clean, sharp and attractive. I think it\u2019s pride for the town.\u201d<\/p>\n
Grossfeld said he understands some people may not agree with the imagery and mascot.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019ve lived in Massapequa my entire life, so I would have to say I\u2019m a little biased,\u201d Grossfeld said. “It’s something of pride, not denigration. You can\u2019t please everybody in anything you do. But I don\u2019t see how it offends anybody because it\u2019s done in a prideful way.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cWhoever says \u2018Once a Chief, always a Chief\u2019 is saying it with pride, not with any kind of animosity or anything negative attached to it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Newsday interviewed several Massapequa High School students on Monday\u00a0who said all of the finalists they voted on included the use of the Chiefs mascot.<\/p>\n
\u201cEvery three years, art students submit mural designs for the wall adjacent to the main campus, located off school property,\u201d Brennan said in the statement. \u201cThis year, there were 20 submissions, which was narrowed down to six. Opened to the entire student body and staff, 500 people recently voted on the winning design and painting has already begun.\u201d<\/p>\n
President Donald Trump has supported Massapequa’s attempt to keep its mascot and team name, calling the state ban “ridiculous.”<\/p>\n
In December, 2025, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by the Massapequa school district and a North Dakota-based organization, the Native American Guardian’s Association,\u00a0to challenge the state’s ban on Native American mascots and other imagery in public schools.<\/p>\n
Susan Gelbman, who lives in Massapequa Park, said she graduated from Massapequa High School in 1979\u00a0and remembers seeing the mural when she was in school.<\/p>\n
\u201cI had seen it as a high school student, and then living here I noticed they would change it periodically,\u201d Gelbman said. \u201cI always looked forward to seeing what it was going to be each year. I think it\u2019s a wonderful community event for the kids to get involved in.\u00a0 It\u2019s important to be connected to where we live. It\u2019s good for everyone.\u201d<\/p>\n
Lauren Rosen,\u00a0who owns the building, said she hasn’t seen the mural and has never been asked her permission to change it.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs long as it doesn\u2019t offend anybody, and it\u2019s non-political, I\u2019m okay with it,\u201d she said. \u201cIf it\u2019s bringing joy to people, that\u2019s great. I\u2019m happy about it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The student-designed mural on the bagel shop next to Massapequa High School is being replaced by a new…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":227836,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[11874,89483,28096,8015,9,11,10,49,51,50],"class_list":["post-227835","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-new-york","tag-high-school","tag-mascotban","tag-massapequa","tag-nassau","tag-new-york","tag-new-york-headlines","tag-new-york-news","tag-new-york-state","tag-new-york-state-headlines","tag-new-york-state-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227835","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=227835"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/227835\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227836"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=227835"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=227835"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=227835"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}