By Corinne Hogseth
Most in Acton and Boxborough are by now aware of the damage inflicted on the community when the Acton Boxborough Regional School Committee quickly, unceremoniously and unanimously voted to get rid of the Colonial mascot and name, which have represented our high school for some 60 years. A couple School Committee members specifically warned against the negative impact on the students and the community that would result from railroading this decision through in a matter of hours without fully considering all sides of the issue and taking the time to build consensus. But the chair and her allies simply didn’t care. I suspect they still don’t. All that mattered is that they were successful in using their positions as elected officials to further their own illiberal political agenda.
Many may not be aware that a similar discussion has been taking place in Shrewsbury since last fall, where their high school mascot is also a Colonial. Shrewsbury’s superintendent led a much a much different – a really impressive – approach to studying the issue. They started by creating an ad hoc committee that included people from multiple stakeholder groups – thirty-one members including students, staff, parents and alumni who were among the 134 individuals who applied to participate. They defined a process, invited community input throughout the process, which included an online forum for people to submit their thoughts (summarized here). They held nine two-hour meetings over five months. When they found that they were close to their March 24th deadline but not close to completing their work, they extended the deadline rather than rush a decision. They took the time to listen to everyone who had something to say. They prepared an impressive final report outlining the topic, the process, the committee membership, the “essential questions” that would frame the discussion and the history of the mascot and how they’ve added to it over the years. They even made the distinction between “mascot” and “nickname” – a key element that was missing from the discussion here in Acton-Boxborough and one of the reasons for so much anger on the part of AB alumni. This comprehensive report was issued two full weeks before the School Committee vote. They modeled democracy for the younger citizens.
Compare that to what our School Committee did: they introduced the proposal to get rid of the Colonial on September 17, 2020, did not broadly share that information with or request input from the community until September 25, and voted to get rid of it on October 15. They did in 28 days what Shrewsbury did in nearly eight months. I cannot believe any member of the School Committee or administration could compare their process to Shrewsbury’s and not be ashamed.
In the end, the Shrewsbury mascot committee could not reach a consensus. Based on this, the Shrewsbury School Committee voted 3-2 to take no action at this time. However, they are in a good place should they decide to revisit the topic again in the future. Going forward, they’ve defined a process for handling divisive issues that is respectful of all viewpoints. They put on a clinic for the boards and committees in Acton, Boxborough and every town and city in the Commonwealth.
Below is a statement from the Shrewsbury Superintendent regarding the decision to keep their Colonial Mascot (June 23, 2021):
At last night’s meeting, the School Committee decided, by a 3-2 vote, to decline to take any action to change the SHS Colonials name and mascot. They also indicated that they believed it is within the administration’s purview to pursue the option of updating the mascot’s presentation, as recommended by the mascot study group. Further, the School Committee also voted unanimously to charge the administration with developing more robust educational programming relative to the history of “Colonials” and the history of local Native American Nations. The video of the discussion and votes can be viewed here, and you can find my recommendation to the School Committee on the matter here. Thank you to all who provided feedback on this issue, the vast majority of which was thoughtful and respectful. However, this has been a divisive issue in our community, and I would like to restate something that I communicated last evening and in my memo: I believe that it is very important to emphasize that this is a complex issue with many nuances, and that reasonable people have different perspectives that should be considered, valued, and respected. While some will be displeased with the outcome no matter what, the school district must continue to approach this topic by modeling civil discourse and promoting empathy for different points of view. I am hopeful that strong disagreements will not lead to unnecessary and damaging divisions. Going forward, I am confident that the SHS leadership will engage the school community, and the larger Shrewsbury community, in educational opportunities regarding the historical context of the “Colonials” nickname, and that they will thoughtfully consider any potential updates to how the mascot is presented. As they do this work, I ask everyone to be respectful when debating this or any controversial issue related to our school community. Thank you again to the SHS Mascot Ad Hoc Study Group members, who modeled how a divisive and emotional topic can be discussed thoughtfully and without rancor.
This comment in the report seems to sum up the general tone of Acton Forum writers:
“ These issues, which are complex, are too often reduced to facile concepts that are categorized as “revisionist history,” “political correctness,” “cancel culture,” etc. To a large degree, the debate about the “Colonials” is serving as a proxy for these other controversies that make up the current so-called “culture wars” in American society, and so it is not surprising that it has been polarizing.”
What is your point?
Thank you Corinne for this timely and important article. The similarity of the AB and Shrewsbury mascot issue is remarkable. Even more remarkable is the difference in the way the respective school committees and school administrations recognized (or ignored) the potential impact on the community of a decision involving a symbol of historical events of global significance. The Shrewsbury school committee, properly focused on their role to provide the best possible education for their students voted unanimously to have the administration develop a “more robust” program related to the relevant local history. The AB school committee never considered it, the chair announced that she will not allow any further discussion of the mascot issue.
Then came the “Zoom bombing” incident at the 12-17-2020 school committee meeting — some vulgar, racist, stupid and very juvenile comments which, we were told, appeared in the Zoom “Chat Box” and were disclosed by Superintendent Peter Light. Everyone including members of the public immediately condemned these comments. Pending an investigation, that should have been the end of the incident, but that evening the school administration published a statement signed and read on a video by 21 members of the AB leadership team and the AB Education Association, a statement not just condemning the Zoom bombing but, without any evidence, attributing it to the “environment” created by the supporters of the Colonial mascot. “Sadly,” the statement declared, “this is only one example of what is an endemic pattern of racism in our community.”
When a few weeks later Acton Police Chief Burrows announced that the investigation by his Department established that the 12-17-2020 Zoom bombing, as well as a subsequent similar attempt on 1-7-2021 were both done by a juvenile living in Arizona who had no connection to anyone in Acton or Boxborough, a juvenile who readily admitted that he did it and who did not understand what he was doing, there was no retraction of the 12-17-2020 statement by the school administration, the AB school committee or any of the “leadership team” members who signed it. Not even an acknowledgment of the identification of the Zoom bomber.
Not only do the AB school committee and school administration continue to refuse to consider the points of view of many members of our communities regarding the Colonial mascot, they continue their not very subtle effort to cast the Colonial supporters as white privilege racists in our communities, requiring the expansion of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion as well as CRT throughout the school system. That is not a good direction for our school system, and the misrepresentation of the Colonial mascot is not a good example for AB students of how to resolve controversial historical issues.