by Sean Begin
The debate surrounding the “Redskin” nickname of the professional football team in Washington, D.C has seen increased talk in recent years, to the point that major newspapers have decided to forgo use of the term and its decidedly racist connotations.
The Seattle Times, the Washington Post editorial board and the New York Daily News are just some of the major publications that have ceased using the term due to its offensive nature, along with dozens of individual writers and journalists.
But one high school newspaper in Pennsylvania has faced irrational backlash from the adults in charge.
The Playwickian is the monthly newspaper for Neshaminy High School in Langhome, Penn. In a move that dated major papers – like the Daily News – the editorial board of the Playwickian voted in October of 2013 to cease using the word “Redskins.”
The problem? Redskins is the nickname of the school’s sports teams. Meaning any coverage of the school’s athletics would no longer use the term. In an editorial published in that October issue, the board explained why it made it’s decision.
“Even the most basic dictionary definition of the term describes it as ‘offensive,’ ‘derogatory,’ or ‘pejorative.’ The Playwickian cannot publish it for these reasons,” read the editorial. “The change is not being encouraged for the sake of political correctness itself, but for the sake of being respectful and fair to an entire race. If racist institutions had remained in other areas of society simply because they were time-honored traditions America would be a vastly different place.”
In an effort to respect journalistic integrity, the editors ran a dissenting opinion from one of the seven editors who voted to continue using the name.
In a long piece detailing the events surrounding the Playwickian’s decision, VICE Sports’ Howard Megdal profiles a school board that behaved like children while the high school students acted with the maturity of adults.
Repeated attempts by the school board, parents and the school’s principal to force the Playwickian to use the word “Redskin” followed the editorial board’s decision. At one point, the principal attempted to confiscate copies of the paper. He managed to secure 40 out of 5,000 printed.
Megdall details specific instances by the adults running and involved with the school, including one alum sending in a full page ad with the word “Skins” emblazoned across it. The alum eventually withdrew the ad, but insisted the paper keep the money; it was donated to girls’ soccer team instead.
Regardless of where any person stands on the term “Redskin” – even though it has a clear racist and offensive history – the actions by the Neshaminy school board were equivalent to a four-year-old temper tantrum in the grocery store line.
The editorial board had every right to make the decision they did. It was based on a direct democratic vote of the 21 editors on the paper. The efforts of the school board, principal and certain parents to coerce and force the Playwickian to use the word “Redskin” is both a violation of the First Amendment and a morally corrupt move.
The school board even went so far as to suspend the student editor-in-chief of the Playwickian as well as the paper’s faculty advisor. Before the school year started in August, the board introduced what it called Policy 600, meant to enforce the use of the word “Redskin.”
In addition the school has taken away the students right to post to Twitter and enacts a ten-day review period of any articles before they are published, in print or online.
As Megdal writes in his expose: “In other words, weekly coverage of the Neshaminy High School football team is no longer possible, which is ironic considering that the policy was enacted to force the editors of the school paper to “honor” the school’s athletic mascot tradition.”
Currently, the paper is looking for a solution to the insane policy enacted by the school board that doesn’t involve a court dispute, but unless things drastically change, a legal battle looms inevitable on the horizon.
Hopefully, some with influence and common sense will step up and force the school board to see reason. Even if those adults think the term “Redskin” is ok, it doesn’t give them the right to make that decision for the students.