{"id":46427,"date":"2021-06-04T13:50:00","date_gmt":"2021-06-04T19:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-american-mascots-could-be-banned-from-colorado-schools-by-october\/"},"modified":"2021-06-04T19:50:00","modified_gmt":"2021-06-04T19:50:00","slug":"native-american-mascots-could-be-banned-from-colorado-schools-by-october","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/native-american-mascots-could-be-banned-from-colorado-schools-by-october\/","title":{"rendered":"Native American mascots could be banned from Colorado schools by October"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

\"State
State Rep. Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, is sponsoring a bill that would prohibit K-12 schools and colleges in Colorado from using Native American mascots \u2013 and fine them for violations. (Durango Herald file)<\/span>du1-i-syn<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

State House lawmakers on Thursday passed a bill that would prohibit K-12 schools and colleges from using Native American mascots \u2013 and fine them for violations. The bill is close to becoming law.<\/p>\n

Sen. Jessie Danielson, D-Wheat Ridge, sponsored Senate Bill 116 with Democratic Reps. Adrienne Benavidez of Denver and Barbara McLachlan of Durango. It would ban any \u201cname, symbol or image that depicts or refers to an American Indian tribe, individual, custom or tradition that is used as a mascot, nickname, logo, letterhead or team name for the school.\u201d<\/p>\n

Public K-12 schools would have until Oct. 1 of this year to comply with the bill\u2019s requirements, while institutions of higher education would have until June 1, 2022, to change their mascots. After those respective deadlines, a school could be fined $25,000 for each month it continues to violate the ban. The money would go to the State Education Fund.<\/p>\n

\u201cI ask you for my ancestors, for my Indigenous brothers and sisters, to support this bill,\u201d Rep. Serena Gonzales-Gutierrez, a Denver Democrat who identifies as Chicana, urged colleagues on the House floor.<\/p>\n

The bill would create an exemption for public schools that have agreements in place prior to June 1 with federally recognized Native American tribes. Such an agreement would need to foster goodwill, emphasize education and support \u201ca curriculum that teaches American Indian history, and encourages a positive cultural exchange.\u201d<\/p>\n

Schools operated by a Native American tribe or with the tribe\u2019s approval that are located within an Indian reservation would also be exempt.<\/p>\n

Rep. Tim Geitner, a Falcon Republican who serves as the House assistant minority leader, argued that the bill amounted to an \u201cunfunded mandate\u201d for public schools.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf we look at Arapahoe High School, they estimate that their cost for changing their mascot is $1 million,\u201d Geitner said on the House floor Wednesday. \u201cStrasburg School District 31J, they estimate their cost of changing (at) $500,000.\u201d<\/p>\n

Geitner brought an amendment that would have given districts more time to comply with the legislation, but it was voted down by a majority of lawmakers.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, Benavidez rejected the notion that the bill used the \u201cstick approach\u201d by threatening fines to get schools into compliance.<\/p>\n

\u201cI will tell you what the stick approach is,\u201d she said. \u201cIt is literally saying to sovereign nations that you can no longer publicly or even privately carry on your ceremonies, your spiritual beliefs.\u201d That\u2019s what the U.S. \u2013 a country \u201cbuilt on racism\u201d \u2013 did to American Indian tribes, Benavidez said.<\/p>\n

The bill passed on a vote of 40-24 in the House, with no Republican support.<\/p>\n

Senate lawmakers will have to approve House changes to SB 116 before it heads to the desk of Democratic Gov. Jared Polis for his signature.<\/p>\n

For more stories from Colorado Newsline, visit www.coloradonewsline.com<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

sponsored by state Rep. Barbara McLachlan clears House 40-24<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":40468,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[2176,394,28,29],"naviga_topic":[],"class_list":["post-46427","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-barbara-mclachlan","tag-colorado-legislature","tag-headlines","tag-newsletter"],"acf":[],"author_name":"dh_admin","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46427","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=46427"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/46427\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/40468"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=46427"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=46427"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=46427"},{"taxonomy":"naviga_topic","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dh.durangoherald.com\/tj\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/naviga_topic?post=46427"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}