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Illinois School Board Journal
November/December 2001

Forum initiates Bloomington dialogue

by James Russell

An increasing number of public school districts are opening their decision-making process to the will of public opinion on the emotional subject of team mascots.

Public forums are but one of the vehicles available for initiating dialogue over an issue that has become an emotional tug-of-war in many communities. While they certainly widen the dialogue to a larger potential audience, do they accurately reflect the aspirations of the community? Or do they serve as stages for special interest groups who seek greater attention on such sensitive issues?

Bloomington School District 87 announced in June it would conduct a forum in early August to seek public comment on its continued use of a Native American mascot to represent the schools' teams, also known as the Purple Raiders.

About 100 people attended the forum, held at the district's junior high school. Board members and staff watched and listened as about two dozen people spoke either for or against the mascot use.

The one-hour meeting was orderly, and board president Diana McCauley made it very clear that the board would not immediately respond to comments. Nonetheless, coverage of the meeting was extensive; three TV stations, several radio stations and the local daily newspaper monitored the event.

McCauley believes a public forum is appropriate for such sensitive issues. "It was an opportunity for people to come forward who did not want to write. They offered their viewpoints and hopefully listened to the other views expressed by opposite sides," she said.

In her nine-year tenure, she recalled two other occasions for forums. One involved a tax cap referendum, the other, a decision to close an elementary school.

While most participants at the August 6 forum gave personal opinions on student pride or Native American heritage, at least two people addressed how the board makes its decisions.

Marc Miller, who also serves on the Bloomington Human Relations Commission, suggested that existing school board policy already contained language that effectively prohibited use of Native American symbols as mascots.

Excerpting language from various board policies, Miller noted District 87 policy seeks to "develop in students a cultural literacy about our composite heritage; a sense of personal responsibilities ..., through an understanding of local and national heritages."

"... District 87 policy shows that the decision to remove the mascot at BHS has already been made and the symbol must be removed. To decide otherwise would require a substantial revision, in fact, a gutting, of your own policies," he told the board at the forum.

Another participant questioned whether the use of a public forum fairly represented the community's interests.

"We have so many issues," said Susan Callahan. "If this forum is appropriate for this issue, what is appropriate for the rest of them?"

Callahan suggested later that such forums merely provide a stage for special interest groups that "only represent themselves, and who know how to perform for the media."

McCauley, however, disagrees.

"I'd like to clarify that. We did not stage an event; rather, this was a sincere opportunity to collect information. It was, in my opinion, the right thing to do, for making this kind of decision," she said recently.

The board received less than a dozen letters on the issue after the forum and, on August 15, voted 5-2 to remove the Indian as Bloomington SD 87 mascot, but to retain the Purple Raiders name. How quickly the schools will move to adopt a new mascot will be left up to staff, she said.

"We want to keep the students engaged in this process. I am sure the (staff) will come to the board. Our decision will depend on what they say," she said. "Whether the vote was 4-3, 5-1, or 6-1, the board is very much committed to abide by the decision (to remove the current mascot) and will live by it."