User:Jamisonahrens/sandbox

Redskins Mascot Section:

Original:

On March 16, 2015, the Lancaster school board voted to discontinue the use of the nickname "Redskins". On June 3, 2015, the students of both Lancaster Middle School and the High School voted on a new name: the Lancaster Legends.

Revised:

Lancaster Legends Logo

For more than 60 years, the Redskin name had been apart of the Lancaster Central School District. But on March 16th, 2015, the Lancaster School Board voted to discontinue the use of the nickname "Redskins". Starting in 2001, the U.S. Commission of Civil Rights advocated for non-Native American schools to avoid using images and references that could have a negative prejudice or bias against Native American people. With this, the Lancaster School District started to slowly phase out the Redskin name by doing things such as ordering uniform's without any reference to the mascot name. The school district than announced it would make a decision in the 2017-2018 school year, but this came with opposition as some people wanted this timeline to be accelerated. During the school's spring lacrosse season, the Akron, Niagara Wheatfield and Lake Shore school districts boycotted Lancaster lacrosse games due to a large amount of Native American athletes on each of their respective teams. Due to these actions, the Lancaster School Board decided to immediately make a decision regarding the district's mascot name. In reaction to this decision to change Redskin name, there were some protests, including one by students of the Lancaster School District. About 10% of the student body of the Lancaster School District participated in a walkout in response of the name change on March 19th, 2015. These protests weren't successful as the district was dedicated to its decision. Although previously scheduled for May 27th, on June 2nd and 3rd of 2015 the students of the Lancaster High School, Lancaster Middle School, and William Street School voted for the new mascot name. The students were given seven choices to vote on: the Lancaster Alphas, the Lancaster Dragons, the Lancaster Jaguars, the Lancaster Knights, the Lancaster Legends, the Lancaster Pride, and the Lancaster Red Hawks. With receiving 1,106 votes out of 3,072 total votes, it was announced on June 3rd that the winning mascot name was the Lancaster Legends. The Legends logo was designed by a 8th grader named Korissa Gozdziak. To conclude this process, the Lancaster School Board finalized the new mascot name on June 8th, 2015.