The William S. Hart Union High School District Board voted in favor of retiring the Hart High School Indian mascot by 2025 during their regular board meeting on Wednesday.
The motion to retire the Hart High School Indian mascot by June 30, 2025 passed 4-1 on Wednesday, after dozens of members of the community, including alumni, staff members, students, and members of local Native American Tribes shared their opinion on the issue of the “outdated” mascot.
“I think that we are at a pivotal moment in our district. I shared before my strong values and beliefs. Decisions that we will make tonight aren’t about me though, they’re about our students,” said Dr. Cherise Moore, President of the Hart Board.
Hart High School staff and students are expected to have the opportunity to decide on a new mascot for the school as a part of the decision. In addition, several cosmetic changes have been suggested for the Hart High School Campus, including a mural on campus honoring Native American history, and the naming of a Native American Cultural Center on campus after silent film star William S. Hart, who reportedly highly respected Native Americans and for whom the school and district is named.
See Related: Hart District Holds Discussion Regarding History, Controversy Of Hart High Mascot
The commenters who spoke at the meeting included members of the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians, which count the Santa Clarita Valley and surrounding areas as ancestral lands, as well as Hart alumni, staff and students.
“If this were a vote I was going to take I would look at it as what is the best for the children. We have to think about whether it even hurts one child. If by not changing the mascot here hurts one Native American child at West Ranch, then we have to change the mascot tonight,” said Saugus Union School District Board Member David Barlavi.
Originally decided on in 1946, the Hart High School mascot was inspired by the Santa Clarita Valley’s heavy involvement in the early development of the western film industry, and especially by Hart, a Newhall resident who was well known to harbor a deep respect for Native Americans.
However, over the next several decades, shifting attitudes and more prevalent Native voices became included in the conversation, with some concerned that using a caricature of a racial minority may be doing more harm than good to the people it purportedly honored.
“I understand and I don’t deny that William Hart, what he intended to do, he believed was honorable — that to some the mascot really represents a source of pride for our students. And I understand that traditions are important,” Moore said. “But I also know that the use of the Indian mascot represents stereotypes, marginalization, dehumanization. It represents the hurt and pain and trauma of current students, families, and future students, and to many, it is offensive and insensitive.”
Board member Joe Messina was the single nay vote on the motion, noting that “it’s not a real plan or an elective, a class, I’m voting no.”
Ed. Note: Linsey Towles contributed to this article.
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