A law that would make it more difficult for people to launch complaints against school districts with race-based mascots is currently awaiting approval in the Wisconsin state legislature. All the bill needs to become a law is Gov. Scott Walker’s approval.
Currently, all that is required for a complaint to be reviewed by the Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction is one individual complaint. The law would change this to require 10 percent of a district’s population to approve the complaint before it is examined.
This editorial board believes that the implementation of this law would be nothing short of absurd, or at the very least, counterproductive. To stifle voices speaking in an attempt to provide schools with a more inviting environment is shameful.
Such a law would only further marginalize the individuals who feel offended or victimized by questionable mascots. Not only could many of the populations likely targeted by such mascots already be small portions of a district’s population, this law would further highlight how little support they have in their own communities.
Speaking to the merits of changing a school’s race-based mascot, we overall believe changing a mascot because even a small handful of community members are uncomfortable with the connotation it brings is worthwhile. While one generation of students and their families might be annoyed with adjusting to a new mascot, changing it would prevent all future generations of students and community members from feeling alienated. In this board’s opinion, making students feel comfortable in the school they have to go to every day for the rest of the school’s history trumps a few years of some other students being annoyed.
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