New York state eases portion of ban on Native American imagery at schools

The State Education Department says it will no longer prohibit school employees from wearing Native American-inspired logos when they're either on campus or at school events. They're trying to make each side have a say rather than just make a decision and live with it. Both Royce Ketchum in Dutchess County and Mayopack in Putnam changed their nicknames from the Indians in 2023 after the state said any schools that kept using Native American imagery could lose funding. If it offended people who were Native American, then it was probably a good idea. It's been settled by Indians here for many, many years, and it's not derogatory. I feel it's complimentary. While multiple Long Island schools tried to sue the state, none went anywhere. To put any time and energy into changing it was not a good use of our taxpayers' dollars. Still, the SED says it will now recommend decisions on whether or not employees can wear something like an old Mayo Pack Indians shirt to a football game be left up to the school districts. What's the harm? It just says this is our tradition and we're happy to remember it. We live in America and we have the right to choose what we want to do. Wappinger's school district, where Ketchum is, tells us it's still waiting for more information on the change from the state, while Mayo Pack said it had no comment. At what point do you say, okay, enough is enough? It's all yes or all no. One person who did have a comment was President Trump, who said before that he thinks schools should be able to keep their nicknames and wrote on social media that this was a big win. In Mayo Pack, Greg Thompson, News 12.