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Proposed deadline extension to schools with Native American mascots riles Democrats

By Marianne Goodland 05/11/2022 | updated 3 years ago

A mystery amendment to House Bill 1390, the annual school finance act, put a last-minute blip onto the annual funding measure and riled Democrats who have worked for two years to require public schools to eliminate Native American mascots.

Legislators added the amendment to the bill during a Senate Education Committee hearing on April 28. 

Last year, Democratic lawmakers passed a law that banned the use of Native American mascots for 26 public schools in Colorado. 

That ban goes into effect on June 1, 2022, and 26 schools wound up on a list issued by the Colorado Commission on Indian Affairs last July. As of March 10, the list is down to a dozen, including schools and school districts that have been the most ardently opposed to Senate Bill 116, the mascots law. Those schools included Lamar High School, whose mascot is the “Savages,” and the Yuma school district, where the mascot is the Yuma Indian. 

In the meantime, however, seven more schools that use a “thunderbird” as their mascot came under the attention of the commission, according to a discussion that took place at an April 15 meeting. The commission intends to vote on May 19 on the dozen remaining schools that have been on the list since last year. 

The amendment to the school finance act was initially intended to give the seven schools with “thunderbird” mascots the same one-year planning timelines that the 26 schools initially tied to SB 116 had.

But then the mystery amendment showed up.

Originally, the school finance act said that the schools or school districts first notified that they were in violation of SB 116 on or after May 1, 2022 but before June 1 would have until June 2023 to come into compliance. 

But the Senate Education amendment tweaked that language to say that schools would only have to be notified, and it wasn’t clear what they’d be notified on. That led to questions from the sponsors of SB 116, including State Rep. Adrienne Benavidez, D-Adams County, that the language created a giant loophole that the dozen schools still on the list could use to delay the changes on their mascots. 

House Democrats rejected the change to HB 1390 and called for a conference committee.

Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, told Colorado Politics the conference committee tweaked the language once again to ensure that the notification is on the violation of the ban. It would again likely only apply to the seven schools that will be added to the list next week.

The bill is awaiting agreement on the conference committee report and final passage in both the House and Senate. 

The Sanford School District is dropping its Indian mascot in favor of the “Thundering Mustangs,” although they have not yet settled on a logo.
Marianne Goodland

Reporter

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