In an email dated Feb. 7, RSU 12 Supt. Greg Potter responded to a Jan. 26 letter from the Wiscasset Board of Selectmen requesting the school board reconsider its decision to “immediately” and “permanently” ban the use of the “Redskin” mascot at Wiscasset High School.
In the email, also addressed to Wiscasset Town Manager Laurie Smith, Potter thanked the Board for its concern over the issue and said that the letter had been shared with all members of the RSU 12 School Board as well as Chairman Thomas Birmingham. Potter said the issue “continues to be a very difficult one to wrestle with” and promised to communicate with the town as developments warrant.
In response to the Board’s decision, Wiscasset has scheduled a non-binding vote for March 1 to allow citizens to weigh in on the issue, a process that Potter said would be followed closely by school officials with the possibility of a Board agenda item concerning the mascot in March.
A Feb. 10 RSU 12 Board meeting did not include an agenda item to discuss the mascot, which partially owed, said Potter, to a “good deal” of other business to be conducted during the month.
Potter also cited a bill that is currently before the 125th Legislature, which seeks a statewide ban on the use of Native American mascots in schools, as another reason why the school board is waiting to act.
“I was disappointed,” said Selectman Ed Polewarczyk, discussing the email. “There was no commitment one way or another.”
The March 1 vote will be the second opportunity for Wiscasset residents to have their say on the issue. In November 2010, Dresden resident Chris Teel organized an informal poll of Wiscasset voters to take the “temperature of the town” regarding the mascot.
In that poll, 503 out the 667 respondents were in favor of keeping the “redskin” moniker, evidence cited by Polewarczyk and others as “indisputable” proof of the true wishes of the town.
