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| MENOMONIE SCHOOL DISTRICT CHANGES NICKNAME FROM INDIANS TO MUSTANGS |
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WPR News - Menomonie School District changes nickname from Indians to Mustangs
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Thursday September 22, 2011
by Rich Kremer
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(MENOMONIE) The Menomonie School District in Dunn County has a new nickname. Instead of the Indians, they'll now be known as the Mustangs. It's the first district to change its nickname on its own since the state began ordering others to do the same.
Four school districts in Wisconsin have been ordered by the Department of Public Instruction to drop their race based nicknames or logos since a law, known as Act 250, was passed in 2009. But the Menomonie District wasn't one of them. School Board President Colleen Davis says they made the decision to change, "We knew a complaint was going to come, it was imminent. We had gotten several phone calls saying if the board did not respond in the near future they would just go ahead and file a complaint with the state."
In May, the school board voted to drop the Indians nickname and remove it from uniforms and the high school's gym floor. Community members and students then went to work picking a new nickname, eventually voting for the Mustangs.
Another western Wisconsin district is in the process of changing its nickname but not entirely of its own volition. The Osseo Fairchild School District officially dropped its Chieftains identity in June after being ordered to do so last year by the DPI. School District Superintendent Dennis Geisller says changing the logo led to a divisive split in the community, "Hopefully in this process we've learned a few things and time will heal and communities will come back together."
Geisller says they're forming a committee of community members and students to begin the process of choosing a new identity and he expects that search to be complete by late November. The Mukwonago and Berlin School Districts in eastern Wisconsin have also been ordered to drop their race based nicknames under the law.
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