School mascot debate would be a waste of Idaho lawmakers’ time

Editor’s note: This editorial has been updated to reflect that Rep. Christensen, in an interview with EastIdahoNews.com, said he has changed his mind on such legislation.

Of all the important issues facing the state of Idaho, making sure a local school district doesn’t get rid of its offensive mascot is near the bottom of the list — if at all.

Yet, Rep. Chad Christensen, R-Ammon, posted on his Facebook page “Possible legislation I may bring” included “Legislation to end school boards’ authority to change a school’s name. This is in response to Teton County abolishing the Redskin name. There is an agenda to destroy local heritage, so long time residents no longer have an identity and so generational traditions become extinct. I would like this authority to remain local, but require a vote amongst the citizens.”

In an interview with EastIdahoNews.com Thursday, Christensen said he changed his mind, after talking to the Idaho Freedom Foundation and realizing it would go against his belief in representative government rather than a direct democracy. He told EastIdahoNews.com that school board members are elected officials and if people want something changed, like a school name or mascot, they need to go through the school board.

Good. We hope it remains a dead issue, never to waste even a piece of paper to introduce it or a single hour of legislative staff time to print it.

Not only does this fall under the category of “Things we don’t want legislators wasting time on,” we have to wonder why some things fall under “local control” while other things do not.

It seems odd, as well, that a state legislator who didn’t like the initiative process as it pertains to the state Legislature (Christensen voted last year to make the voter initiative process near impossible) wanted “a vote amongst the citizens” when it comes to mascots.

Was the good legislator suggesting that we shall have a “vote amongst the citizens” for every decision?

The Teton County school board voted, 4-1, to get rid of the Redskins mascot after months of debate and a four-and-a-half hour debate at a school board meeting, according to the Teton Valley News.

Some people didn’t like the final decision. As Christensen surely is aware, sometimes people do not like the final decisions made by the state Legislature. Shall we have a “vote amongst the citizens” every time legislators make a controversial decision?

Boise High’s successful transition to the Boise Brave last year was an artful showing of how something like a mascot change could be done well. The Boise school district conducted an open process, ample opportunity for comment and collaboration.

Is there any body of government more representative of the students, taxpayers, teachers and the school in general than the local school board? This legislation would actually override the views of his neighbors and citizens of Teton County who elected those board members to make calls like this.

Finally, changing a team’s offensive name does not “destroy local heritage” and does not make extinct any generational traditions worth preserving. Do longtime residents of Teton County base their identity on the high school’s nickname?

It stretches the imagination to believe Christensen would equate mostly white people losing something as frivolous as their high school mascot to losing their “heritage” when it’s really white people’s habit of co-opting Native culture that has never belonged to them in the first place that we’re really talking about ending.

If Native peoples don’t want to be labeled in terribly racist and disparaging terminology, then we should listen and respect their wishes. It’s up to us to support them.

Taking tough decisions away from duly elected school board members is not something we want our legislators doing.

This story was originally published January 10, 2020 at 6:00 AM.