To the editor: Angry, sad over GM board’s action

As a former board member of the Cavendish Elementary School and resident of Proctorsville, I am both angry and sad that the current GMUSD Board voted yesterday to retain their racist mascot.

I have a special feeling for American Indians, demeaned by the board action.  Years ago, I was the assistant director of a small school in Minneapolis for adjudicated Indian youth, one of only three non-Indians at the school.  It was an experience I will never forget, learning about the wonderful aspects of Indian life, but also the lasting injuries of hate, prejudice and small everyday petty slights, like someone moving down the  lunch counter so as not to sit too close to an Indian.

The board’s heartless and even illegal vote this week led to the resignation of two Cavendish members who opposed the continued use of the racist mascot and the third Cavendish member leaving the meeting in protest.  Are we teaching our children it is all right to be openly racist and to disregard legally enacted laws?

Barbara Dickey, PhD
Proctorsville