Penn Hills School District to hold town-hall meeting regarding mascot change

Penn Hills School District will hold a town-hall meeting on April 13 to discuss potentially changing its mascot name.

The meeting will be at 6 p.m. in the Penn Hills Elementary cafeteria.

Superintendent Nancy Hines said there has been discussion in the past about a change, but there has been minimal support to take action on it.

“There appears to be much more interest now in having a serious conversation, especially since Washington’s and Cleveland’s professional sports teams have made changes to their mascot names and associated imagery,” Hines said.

The school board will listen to input from the community and alumni. Each participant will have three minutes to speak. The board encourages members to answer prompted questions on whether they want a change and why.

The school district has already made some changes to its schools. Hines said Penn Hills Chiefs Academy changed its name to Penn Hills Cyber Academy several years ago. The school has begun to phase out some aspects of imagery, including spears, she said.

Those in favor of a change will be asked to choose a new mascot name or select from the suggestions given from student leaders at Penn Hills High School — Big Red, Panthers, Phoenix, Pride, Redhawks and Red Storm.

“No one wants to promote an “old” versus “new” Penn Hills, but I don’t think we should be bound by ignorance and or a fear of change either,” Hines said.

The mascot name change has been an ongoing topic for the school district for multiple years.

Penn Hills athletic director Stephanie Strauss recommended dropping the Indians nickname and changing its related images in early 2020. The topic was planned to be discussed during the school’s Athletic Advisory Committee in August 2020.

Shady Side Academy dropped its Indian mascot in July 2020.

Although Penn Hills tabled considering a name change in 2020 to focus on reopening plans for the district, a committee was formed in November of that year comprised of student school board representatives, a high school counselor, parents, alumni and the boys’ varsity basketball coach.

The committee is no longer active, but the school has held an assembly and had guest speakers speak in front of the board over time, Hines said.

“The committee noted the importance of education in helping our community understand how our current mascot name and associated imagery may be viewed as disrespectful to Indigenous Americans,” she said.

Those unable to join can email their thoughts to Penn Hills Board secretary Nakita LaPrade at nlapra@phsd.k12.pa.us. The subject line should say “MASCOT.”