New England Anti-Mascot Coalition

Manchester high school alum crusading against mascots

Boston Globe (AP) – January 9, 2007

MANCHESTER, N.H. – Is it time to expel the Crusader and the Indian?

The Manchester School Board voted Monday to have a committee review the use of Central High School's American Indian mascot and Memorial High School's lance-wielding Crusader, after a Central high alum said the symbols are offensive and should be changed.

Ibrahim Elshamy, president of Central High's class of 2005, has set up a Web site to lobby against the mascots. His presentation Monday to school board members prompted the vote to study the mascots. Elshamy now is a sophomore at Dartmouth College, where debate over the treatment of American Indian students sparked a rally of 500 students, faculty and staff last semester.

"I do not agree with the Manchester School District for using two symbols that cause so much hurt for so many!" Elshamy wrote on his Web site. "Seeing the hurt of my friends, classmates, and fellow Americans in turn hurts me! Shouldn't my school and city deal with these issues with honor, and be role models for others!?"

Elshamy said Tuesday his campaign is motivated by a desire to make amends for the past. As class president, he designed a class T-shirt featuring Central High's Indian mascot. He stopped wearing it after he was confronted by an American Indian friend who found the shirt offensive.

He now realizes that "Wearing the Indian on my shirt wasn't simply disrespectful; it was racist, arrogant, and dishonorable," according to his Web site.

Officials agreed to examine the mascots because "the last thing we want to do is create some kind of alienation for people," said Frank Bass, Manchester's assistant schools superintendent.

Elshamy's Web site notes that a 2002 resolution passed by the state Board of Education recognizes the offense Indian mascots causes American Indian students and encourages districts to eliminate their use. As for the Crusader, "Ostensibly under the name of religion, a fanatical army swept across continents, brutally engaging in genocide against Jews, Muslims, Orthodox Christian, women, and children," he said.

Bass said Central High has been known as the "Little Green" since the early 1920s because of a Dartmouth football star who became a coach, and later principal, of the school. Central High never officially adopted the Indian as its mascot, although it has used it in that capacity—as Dartmouth College did until the 1970s—for decades, he said. Central High's Web site and items in its school store feature the American Indian mascot.

He and Central High Principal Arthur Adamakos said they aren't offended by the Crusader. Adamakos said Memorial adopted the Crusader to honor the U.S. military.

"Athletics teams sponsored by Memorial High School will be known as the Crusader, for in a very real sense it is felt that those who have served our country in its wars were Crusaders in the unending struggle for peace, justice and ... freedom," he said, reading from Memorial's dedication booklet of Nov. 11, 1960.

He said the symbol "has nothing to do with the Crusades, genocide or anything like that," referring to the bloody military campaigns in medieval times to conquer and convert non-Christian people and reclaim Jerusalem from Muslim rule.

The school, located at 1 Crusader Way, displays an emblem of a lance-wielding knight on horseback on the side the building and on its sign. The school's yearbook is called "The Excalibur" and its Web site address is http://www.crusaders.org.