Trump's education secretary threatens federal civil rights lawsuit over Long Island high school being forced to ditch Chiefs mascot

Yahoo

02-06-2025

She's going to the mat for the Chiefs.
President Trump's Secretary of Education Linda McMahon is threatening to bring a civil rights case against the Empire State for forcing a Long Island high school to ditch its Native American mascot.
The former WWE promoter called the New York Board of Regents' 2023 decision to ban Massapequa High School's beloved 'Chiefs' nickname a 'violation' of Title VI of the federal Civil Rights Act during a visit to the school Friday.
If the state doesn't reverse course and allow the Chiefs and their feathered headdress logo to remain, McMahon said she would refer the issue to the Justice Department to pursue.
'That's how serious we are about it,' McMahon said inside the high school's gym after touring classrooms and telling students, 'it's a real pleasure to be in a room full of Chiefs.'
She claimed New York was targeting the Chiefs, while allowing other schools with names like Vikings or Dutchmen to remain.
'If you look at the states, you've got the Huguenots, we've got the Highlanders, we've got the Scotsman. Why is that not considered in any way racist?' she asked.
While McMahon and the local supporters defended the name, state officials said they were 'doing the students of Massapequa a grave disservice by ignoring the facts and true history of the local Indigenous people.'
State Education Department spokesperson JP O'Hare criticized that the town has 'failed to get even the most basic facts right' — such as the feathered headdress that Massapequa displays being locally inaccurate, and that the term chief was not used in the area, either.
'And most importantly, there is no recognition of the ways in which European settlers were responsible for displacing Indigenous people from their homes,' O'Hare's statement said, adding that 'local Indigenous representatives' find that 'certain Native American names and images perpetuate negative stereotypes, and are demonstrably harmful to children.'
'Equally troubling is the fact that a U.S. Secretary of Education would take time out of her schedule to disrupt student learning in the name of political theatre.'
Massapequa school board president Kerry Wachter rebutted, saying, 'They're sticking to their talking points and listening to only one side of the story.'
She pointed to a 2016 poll which showed nine in 10 Native Americans do not take offense to terms like 'Redskins.'
Trump, who posed with a Massapequa shirt in the Oval Office, ordered McMahon to take up the issue in April.
The federal government became involved after a plea from Wachter, whose district, among other Native American-named towns on Long Island, unsuccessfully sued New York over the mandate.
'This is a school that really takes its education seriously, and they're incredibly, incredibly behind their school, behind their Chiefs,' McMahon told The Post Friday.
'I think this is wrong — what's happening at Massapequa, to take away this incredible mascot and emblem of Chiefs.'
After Trump intervened, O'Hare said in a statement that Massapequa 'did not reach out to Indigenous leaders or engage with the Department's Mascot Advisory Committee to determine whether its Native American team name and mascot would be permissible.'
'If members of the Massapequa board of education are genuinely interested in honoring and respecting Long Island's Native American past, they should talk to the Indigenous people who remain on Long Island,' the rep said. 'Our regulations, in fact, specifically permit the continued use of Native American names and mascots if approved by local tribal leaders.'
But Massapequa School District Superintendent Dr. William Brennan called the state's claim 'simply inaccurate.' He added that 'several attempts' were made by the district and local tribal leaders attended a roundtable in summer of 2023.
Frank Black Cloud, a leading member of the Native American Guardians Association, which is working with Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman on the issue, is a firm supporter of keeping names like Chiefs in schools and calls it a term of endearment.
'People want to emulate you,' Black Cloud, who has previously defended names like Fighting Sioux and Redskins, said at the event. 'You're talking about strength, talking about being something that people uphold.'
Town of Oyster Bay Supervisor Joseph Saladino, an MHS alumnus and hockey player, doubled down that this is a case of 'rules for thee but not for me' in the Empire State.
'The New York State Department of Education has someone who is the chief of staff,' he said. 'Are they going to change their name?'
Massapequa's suit — a last-ditch effort to stop the district's nine schools from spending $1 million on a forced rebranding — was, ironically, dismissed by a chief justice weeks ago, Wachter explained.
Salt in the wound, Seaford, the first town west of Massapequa, along with Port Washington, named their teams the Vikings, to no objection from the state of New York. Hofstra University in Nassau was previously known as the Flying Dutchmen as well.
'They have Spartans and Vikings and all these things, but they're seeing this particular group of people who are not allowed to be represented,' said Wachter, whose district also filed an amended court complaint ahead of a June deadline.
'That's a civil rights issue … We're standing tall, showing Massapequa pride, and we do take offense to them trying to take it away from us.'
The town will be having a 'Save the Chiefs' fundraiser next weekend at the high school, and Black Cloud will engage in a Native American seminar at Massapequa's popular Nautilus Diner on Saturday.
'We're about education, not eradication,' said Black Cloud, who flew from his North Dakota home to meet McMahon.
'If you have an opposing idea, let me hear it. I'd like to open up a dialogue with you.'