Neshaminy ‘Redskins’ Name Will Be Subject Of Human Relations Commission Hearing

The battle over the Neshaminy School District’s Redskins name and mascot will continue with a Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission (PHRC) hearing in the new year.

The hearing will take place at Bucks County Community College’s Newtown Township campus in the Solarium Room on Monday, January 7 through Friday, January 11 starting at 9 a.m. each day. If needed, additional hearings will take place on Monday, January 14 and Tuesday, January 15.

The hearing from the PHRC stems from a years-long battle over the Redskins name and mascot, which opponents have called racist against Native Americans over the years.

In 2013, Neshaminy parent Donna Boyle, who is part Cherokee, filed a complaint with the PHRC claiming the term and related mascot caused distress for her child due to their indigenous heritage. Boyle had brought up her complaint to administration and school board members going back to at least 2012 and has made her voice heard from time to time at public meetings.

“I don’t understand the promotion of this racial slur,” Langhorne resident Boyle said before the school board in 2013.

Boyle told the board the issue may not seem important to some, but it is to those with “Native-American blood in their veins.”

The 2013 PHRC complaint was dismissed voluntarily in October 2015.

Shortly after the claim was voluntarily dismissed, the PHRC filed the current pending litigation against the district.

“The District denies the allegations in PHRC’s lawsuit and, through its counsel, is defending the case, as it did in the 2013 case. The District contends that PHRC’s allegations are unfounded,” the district said in a statement released Wednesday.

“Finally, because the litigation is ongoing, we cannot discuss it beyond the general information we have provided in this statement,” the statement added.

Over the years, groups of vocal Neshaminy residents have stood up to defend the Redskins name, often citing its long use.

Then-school board President Ritchie Webb said in 2013 name had been in the district for as long as 70 years and the people who originated the name didn’t intend it to be derogatory or racist. Instead, he argued, the name was a showing of respect.

The Neshaminy Redskins debate has gained attention from national and regional press over the past years. In 2014, there was a nationally watched fight over whether the high school newspaper could use the term and also over editorial control.

Over the past decade, school systems across the country have moved away from Native American-influenced names due to concerns that they are racist and derogatory. Groups representing those with native heritage have joined with civil rights and religious organizations, including the Central Conference of American Rabbis and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, in calling for renaming teams and mascots that use controversial Native American names.

The Neshaminy name is derived from the indigenous Lenni-Lenape people’s work Nischam-hanne, which means “double stream” and “place where we drink twice.” The Neshaminy Creek runs through the school district in Hulmeville, Langhorne, Lower Southampton, and Middletown.