As a former board member of the Cavendish Elementary School and a resident of Proctorsville, I am both angry and sad that the current Green Mountain school board voted to retain its racist mascot.
I have a special feeling for American Indians, demeaned by the board’s action. Years ago I was the assistant director of a small school in Minneapolis for adjudicated Indian youth, one of only three non-Indians at the school. It was an experience I will never forget, learning about the wonderful aspects of Indian life, but also the lasting injuries of hate, prejudice and small everyday petty slights, like someone moving down the lunch counter so as not to sit too close to an Indian.
The board’s heartless and even illegal vote last week led to the resignation of two Cavendish members who opposed the continued use of the racist mascot and the third leaving the meeting in protest.
Are we teaching our children it is all right to be openly racist and to disregard legally enacted laws of our state?
Barbara Dickey
Proctorsville
