On Jan. 13 the RSU 12 School Board shocked the Wiscasset community and nearly everyone else who had been watching, by voting to “immediately” and “permanently” remove the term “Redskin” from any and all schools within the district.
The surprise decision suddenly ended four months of contentious debate, which itself was a revival of the heated discussion enjoined the last time this issue of the high school’s controversial mascot was presented to the then Wiscasset School Board in 1999.
In LCN’s Nov. 4, 2010 edition, in this very space, we commended the RSU 12 board for agreeing to refer the issue to the Wiscasset community.
Forming a citizen’s committee was the right idea, we said, one that created time for those personally invested in the process to have their say; breathing room for them to say it, and space for a reasoned decision to be made.
This week we think the board acted rashly by stepping in to take the play away from Wiscasset. Cutting off the committee at the knees is in some ways, we feel, worse than not forming a committee at all.
We are not sure what changed between November and January, but something obviously did. Our position has not changed. We thought then, and still think now, allowing the community to have its say was the way to go. Even if the end result was going to be the same, at the very least the people personally invested in the issue deserved a chance to be heard.
Opponents of the “Redskin” name may want to skip ahead to the feel good, problem solved, golden glow portion of the program, but in the real world, the board’s sudden action eliminated the impetus for a real, soul-searching look at a community’s use, and continued embrace, of what some consider a racist pejorative.
Now, instead of making up their own minds, Wiscasset residents can now feel, rightly, that a piece of their identity has been ripped away from them.
Resolving the issue in this way does nothing to address the cultural typecasting that led to the creation of such symbols to begin with. Therefore is not likely to deter such use in the future.
Make no mistake: The mascot issue was a long-term loser for Wiscasset. In a very real sense, like it or not, and many didn’t, the community at large was painted with one big racist brush – stuck in the role of the husband, who was asked the smart-alec, no-win question: “So, do you still beat your wife?”
Via the committee’s action, the best thing that could have happened would have been for Wiscasset to make a decision on the matter all parties could have respected.
The next best thing would have been for Wiscasset to make a decision they would have been willing to live with, regardless of the consequences.
Finally, another thought regarding the RSU 12 School Board’s unilateral action: This is the chicken of school consolidation coming home to roost. This is what less local control looks like.
Assuming Wiscasset can’t prove the RSU 12 board acted illegally, or beyond its scope, and there is no indication it did either, there is precious little recourse for Wiscasset residents upset about the board’s action to turn to now.
This is the other part of well-intentioned voters across the state deciding to join their various RSUs, giving away hundreds of millions of dollars of school facilities in exchange for less local control and the fuzzy promises of more efficiencies and some sort of savings down the road.
This won’t be the last time this happens, either.
