MADISON, Wis. (WSAU) – The state’s education department is thinking about making all 35 Wisconsin schools with Indian mascots and logos prove that they don’t discriminate.
A state law passed in May allowed the Department of Public Instruction to make schools change their Indian monikers if the agency believes they’re racist. The law created a system in which residents must file complaints before the DPI could review the nick-names.
But at a hearing today, department officials said they wanted to list all the school names-and-mascots it believes are discriminatory – and then make all those schools defend themselves, whether a complaint is filed or not.
Earlier this week, the DPI ordered the Osseo-Fairchild School District to drop its Chieftains logo and mascot. Similar complaints are pending in Oconomowoc and Kewaunee.
Under the law, schools found to be discriminatory must change their logos-and-nicknames in a year – or face possible fines of up to a-thousand-dollars a day.
