What to Know
- Nearly 1,000 students signed a petition created by one student in an effort to save the mascots.
Six schools in one Florida county will be getting new mascots after officials made the decision to remove their previous controversial Native American mascots – despite the efforts of some students and parents to save them.
The Hillsborough County School Board voted Tuesday to change the mascots at schools – five elementary and one middle – for the upcoming school years after recommendations from a Native American parent advisory board, according to NBC affiliate WFLA-TV.
"We are telling them to remove the cartoons because I am a Native American, and I am not a mascot," Jaymie Perez, who serves on the advisory board, told the station.
Nearly 1,000 students signed a petition created by one student in an effort to save the mascots, but Superintendent Jeff Easkins said the changes would go forward after the meeting.
Easkins said all the schools have already voted on new mascots – from Eagles to Thunderbolts and even Sharks – but said he would allow the school’s principals to make the changes at a pace they feel is appropriate, a move that angered some who wanted the changes implemented immediately.
"Why do we need to take time?" Perez asked after Tuesday's meeting. "If it was any other culture standing here in front of you today, it would have been changed yesterday.”
