Trump's education secretary threatens to pull funding from NY over its Native American mascot ban
MASSAPEQUA, Long Island (WABC) -- President Donald Trump's top education official says her department has determined that New York is discriminating against a school district that is refusing a state order to get rid of its Native American chief mascot.
U.S. Secretary of Education Linda McMahon said on a visit to Massapequa High School on Long Island on Friday that the state could risk looking federal funding or face a Justice Department investigation.
McMahon, a proponent of states rights in education policy, waded into the local issue.
She accused the New York State Department of Education of a civil rights violation as it tries to force the school to ditch its longtime Chief mascot.
McMahon threatened a criminal referral to the Department of Justice if the state doesn't back down.
"We will be asking that this request to remove the mascot be taken off the table, we'll ask for an apology to be issued to Massapequa," McMahon said. "We'd like to settle this in an amicable fashion but we're certainly prepared to go deeper if we must."
The decision by the New York State Board of Regents to ban Native American names and imagery three years ago affected more than a dozen districts on Long Island.
Massapequa is among four districts that refused to comply and are still fighting the ban in court.
Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman and Massapequa School officials were on hand to welcome McMahon. Local leaders introduced Frank Blackcloud, a member of an Indian tribe in South Dakota who feels the imagery isn't offensive.
"The impact of this removal extends beyond a name, it impacts the spirit of a community and the future of cultural understandings," Blackcloud said.
But not one of the nine local indigenous tribes agreed.
The actual chief of the Unkechaug Nation, on Moriches Bay, said the civil rights being violated are not in Massapequa.
"It's a caricature," he said "A grotesque fictitious image of living people and does nothing to remind people of those who lived on Long Island prior to European contact."
It wasn't immediately clear what consequences state election officials might face, if prosecuted for civil rights violations. A spokesman for the state DOE on Friday wrote off the whole event as "political theater."
(The Associated Press contributed to this report.)
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