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Friday, December 16, 2022
Vol. 10, No. 50
HOLIDAY GIFT GUIDE
MAN CHARGED WITH SANTOS RECEIVED MONEY GRAND LARCENY FROM OLIGARCH’S COUSIN
PAGES 23-38
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Manhasset awaits state word on mascot Districts told to stop using Native American names, imagery or they risk losing state aid BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z The Manhasset School District, like Sewanhaka, will also be awaiting further guidance from the state’s education department before making a decision on potentially changing its mascot. The state DOE released a memo on Nov. 17 ordering school districts to stop using mascots, team names or imagery depicting Native Americans by the end of the 2022-2023 school year or risk losing state aid. Manhasset Superintendent Gaurav Passi did not commit to changing the district’s “Indians” mascot in a statement to Blank Slate Media Friday. “We are awaiting regulations that the State Education Department indicated they would be putting forth in the coming month clarifying the District’s obligations,” Passi said in a statement. Sewanhaka Superintendent James Grossane said at the district’s Dec. 1 Board of Education meeting that they are also waiting to receive regulations from the education department. The district mascot is also the “Indians.” “This was a topic of great discussion at the county’s superintendent meeting last week and the advice we received and are following is we are waiting for the regulations,” Grossane said. The Sewanhaka superintendent also made mention of online petitions
that circulated in 2020 to have his district and Manhasset change their mascots. Manhasset’s petition, organized by alum Jo Trigg, has gained nearly 6,000 signatures since it was launched two years ago. “To prove how wrong this mascot is, consider a mascot called the Blacks, the Jews, the Caucasians, the Asians, image and all?” Trigg wrote in the petition. “If it sounds completely ridiculous and offensive, it is because it is. There’s no way to justify the mascot as it is.” Trigg recently told Patch.com that the state’s education department made a memorandum more than 20 years ago that schools that depict Native American imagery should stop doing so. “Many other states with significant Indigenous populations made these mascot changes back in the ’90s,” Trigg told Patch. “We have to ask ourselves what has taken so long?” The history of Manhasset’s “Indian” mascot is traced back to the Matinecock Indian Tribe, a group that occupied a majority of the Town of North Hempstead. The Matinecocks were forcibly removed from the territory, with Manhasset keeping the “Indian” mascot name along with having an orange feather attached to the “M” in their logo and callContinued on Page 56
PHOTO COURTESY OF THE TOWN OF NORTH HEMPSTEAD
Poster contest participants show off their creations at Mary Jane Davies Green during the annual town tree lighting ceremony. See story on page 57.
Residents pass $44M school projects bond BY R OB E RT PE L A E Z A $44 million capital projects bond to provide enhancements for facilities in the Manhasset School District was approved by district
residents 672-296 Thursday, officials announced. The bond will fund approximately 50 projects slated for Munsey Park, Shelter Rock and the Secondary School. The projects fall under
three categories: safety and security, infrastructure and academic and cocurricular. District Superintendent Gaurav Passi n a statement expressed his Continued on Page 51
Visit themanhassettimes.com or theisland360.com for the latest in breaking news.