Oriskany ‘Taking Some Time To Reflect’ On Redskins Name Change

The Oriskany Board of Education held a virtual meeting to discuss the Redskins mascot for the Oriskany Central School District. What will happen next? Will the Oriskany Redskins change their name?

According to the Oriskany Board Of Education meeting minutes, Superintendent Timothy J. Gaffney did bring up the topic near the end of the meeting:

"Thank you, Mrs. Anderson, and thank you, Board of Education. As you know there have been some inquiries lately regarding our school mascot. Taking some time to reflect on these inquiries my recommendation would be to take some additional time to discuss this with our community before we come to any decision regarding our mascot".

As of right now, the next steps would be community involvement with the school district. Gaffney would like to discuss the name with the public before making a decision. The Rome Sentinel also reports the reason why the district is bringing this topic back up, is because of other recent developments involving such usages of the name.

Local resident Dave Fay recalled it was in 1956 or 57, when he was in high school, that someone had the idea that the school district/sports teams should have a “name” other than simply, Oriskany. When the name was chosen, it was meant to honor one of the two Indian Nations who supported the Patriots in the American Revolution — the Oneidas — who along with the Tuscarora, sided with the revolutionaries."

Other Topics From The Meeting

Other topics were discussed at the meeting including:

1) Motion to Approve Jessica Bates as Math Teacher, Grades 7-12

2) Motion to Approve Stacey Sommer as English Teacher, Grades 7-12

3) Motion to Approve Amanda George as Special Education Teacher, Grades 7-12

(The photo used is from Student Stores. The hat can be purchased for $20)