MASAPEQUA, NY (AP) – New York discriminates against school districts that refuse to remove state orders Native American Chief MascotAn education official for President Donald Trump said Friday.
U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said that a few weeks of investigations by her agency determined that state education officials were violating federal civil rights laws and could face a Department of Justice investigation or risk losing federal funds.
McMahon did not elaborate on the finding, but said her department voluntarily signed a resolution apologizing to Massapequa and asked the state to allow other districts in the state to continue using the mascot of choice.
If the state refuses, the former longtime CEO of World Wrestling Entertainment said her department could file a lawsuit more than the Department of Justice.
“How serious is that we are,” McMahon said. McMahon presented with local officials, students and community members at the high school gym after touring campus.
A spokesperson for the state education department did not immediately comment.
Trump ordered the federal education department he has Moved to demolition, We will start an inquiry In the conflict last month. The movement has resulted in an unlikely flash point in the coastal suburbs. A permanent discussion Above Indigenous people’s images location In American Sports.
About 40 miles (64 kilometres) east of Manhattan, Masapequa has fought for years State duties Retires from Native American sports names and mascots.
However, a lawsuit challenging the state’s ban on the 2023 constitutional basis was dismissed by a federal judge earlier this year.
State education officials who have been trying to remove problematic mascots and team names for more than 20 years have promised to risk replacing districts or losing education funds until the end of this school year.
State officials say schools could be exempt from a power of attorney if they get approval from a local Native American tribe or from a local Native American tribe.
Residents who support the mascot maintain claim that the image has been part of the community’s identity for generations and is intended to honor the Native American past.
The town is named after the people of Massapequa, which was part of the wider Renape, or Delaware, who lived in the forest areas of the northeastern United States and Canada.
“After all these years, changing their names to them is ridiculous and is actually a humiliation to us on our great Indian population,” Trump wrote in a recent social media post calling for a federal investigation.
But indigenous residents on Long Island and elsewhere in New York call the Massapequa mascot a problem. This is because it depicts Native American men wearing headdresses that were normally worn by midwestern tribes but were worn in the Northeast.
The hilarious mascot also obscures the legacy of Massapequa’s violence against Native Americans, including the location of the massacre in which many Indigenous people, women and children were killed by Europeans in the 1600s, Native American activists said.
Masapequa, yes Approximately 90% White has long been a conservative fortress popular with New York City police and firefighters.
Trump visited town last year Join Wake I’ve frequented Long Island with New York City police officers, as it is. Changed Republicans.
comedian Jerry SeinfeldHollywood Baldwin Brothers And the Long Island claim Gilgo Beach Serial Killer It is also found among the well-known Massapequa High alumni.
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