“I’m very proud of our students no matter what their position on this debate is. I’m very proud of their willingness to get up in front of this large crowd, and speak respectfully and I give them tremendous amount of credit for doing that.”

Tewksbury Memorial High School Principal, Kristen Vogel

The town of Tewksbury held a meeting on January 27, 2016, in the Tewksbury Memorial High School Gymnasium where any resident of Tewksbury was eligible to speak for a maximum of three minutes. Dr. O’Connor made it clear that this was in no form a debate; the Superintendent (himself) and the School committee would not be responding to any questions. The concern of whether the Redmen Mascot should remain or be changed is ongoing; however many brave people of all ages stood up that night to voice their opinions.

Many of the speakers came from our own TMHS speaking on behalf of keeping the Redmen Mascot. Consisting of student athletes such as T.J Contalonis of the Boys Varsity Football team and Brianna Higgins of the Girls Varsity Tennis team stated that “the mascot is a part of their culture” and bringing home state championship trophies is the best way they can show their respect and represent the mascot. Cheerleading Varsity Captain Justin Petrie also stepped up to the microphone telling the school committee as well as the audience that “the majority of this town is not fully Native Americans, so unless we hear from them directly there can be no conclusion to whether or not this offensive to them”.

On the other hand Amanda Kuffo, senior at Tewksbury Memorial High School, got up and stood in line to speak against the mascot in hope it will change. Amanda spoke loud and clear saying “Tewksbury treats each other like family, I know that. Tewksbury, my family, is not racist, however the term Redmen is”. She was very persuasive in proving that our mascot, the Redmen, is an offensive slang word used against natives. Just because we [Tewksbury] use it positively doesn’t mean that’s what it is.  

Arguments on both sides were strong, however some stronger than others. As a whole forty-one members of the Tewksbury community stood up to express their feelings towards this issue. Of that forty-one, twenty seven were in favor of keeping the mascot while only a mere fourteen wanted it to be changed. Many justifications to keep the Mascot were repetitive yet well built; people spoke about political correctness going “too far”, they brought up other Mascots that are worse than Redmen, such as the Cleveland Indian, and the pride they have in their logo is with complete respect and not in any way a showcase of mocking it. Nevertheless, arguments to change the mascot were just as or slightly stronger than those opposing. Words such as disrespectful, derogatory, and offensive were brought up multiple times. One women used the word dehumanizing as well as saying “If you keep hurting someone and know it, the hurt doesn’t become accidental or unintentional but on purpose”.

Students of TMHS, were allowed to vote on an online poll run by superintendent John E. O’Connor and principle Kristen Vogel stating their comments on the mascot decision.

This discussion is still ongoing and may be for a while. With such strong arguments it’s rather tough to make a final decision, however in the end, there will be many people who will be exceptionally upset about the outcome and so we leave you with this:

“It’s not the name that makes the team, it’s the team that makes the name”.