A bill coauthored by Assemblywoman Pilar Schiavo, D-Chatsworth, and Assemblyman James Ramos, D-Highland, that would ban the usage of “derogatory” Native American terms as mascots for K-12 public schools advanced Wednesday out of the education committee in the state Senate.
The partisan bill now moves to the Senate Appropriations Committee, where it will be determined what money the state will have to expend to satisfy the bill’s requirements. The committee meets every Monday.
Should it pass there and then the full Senate, the bill would be placed on the desk of Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign it into law.
Sen. Scott Wilk, R-Santa Clarita, sits on the committee and said, despite being a supporter of local control, he would be voting in support of the bill. He said that after hearing Julia Estrada, a Hart High School graduate who started the petition to remove “Indians” as the school’s mascot, speak on why she, as a Native American, found those terms offensive.
“I think we do too much stuff in Sacramento telling people what to do,” Wilk said. “But your testimony was so compelling that I am going to vote aye on this and throw away my principle of local control because you moved me. So I want to thank you for that.”
Schiavo released the following prepared statement to The Signal following Wednesday’s meeting:
“I’m excited that (Assembly Bill) 3074 unanimously passed in the Senate Education Committee today, including with a vote by committee member Sen. Scott Wilk,” Schiavo said in the statement. “This legislation, inspired by concerns from our local community, aims to eliminate culturally harmful mascots. At the hearing today, tears were shed from a student who was personally impacted by these deeply problematic mascots. Working closely with tribal and student leaders, we crafted this bill to expand existing laws and prohibit additional derogatory Native American terms, a significant step toward fostering unity, a shared respect and inclusivity within our schools. Ensuring all students feel safe and are able to attend schools where they can thrive will always be a top priority.”
In a speech that became emotional at times, Estrada said she remembers playing tennis at Hart High and hearing other students making whooping noises by putting their hands over their mouths, as caricaturized in cartoons and other media. She also recalled seeing what were referred to as “tribe leaders,” or student government heads, emerging from teepees at pep rallies.
“When we think of Native American mascots, we often think about Plains Indians with a big feathery headdress and that’s ultimately not what California looks like,” Estrada said. “It’s just proof that we are caricaturizing Native Americans in our educational spaces as one image and almost like making them a mythological creature, similar to that of things that don’t exist anymore, like Vikings, etc.”
Estrada’s petition eventually resulted in the William S. Hart Union High School District governing board voting in July 2021 to remove “Indians” as the Hart mascot, citing a need to move away from a race-based symbol that the school has been associated with since Jan. 10, 1946. Earlier this year, the student body and staff voted to have “Hawks” be the new mascot starting in the 2024-25 school year.
The bill as presently written would expand on Assembly Bill 30, which was signed into law in 2015 by then-Gov. Jerry Brown and saw California become the first state in the nation to ban the use of “Redskins” as a nickname or mascot.
Schiavo’s bill adds on to that, including “Apaches, Big Reds, Braves, Chiefs, Chieftains, Chippewa, Comanches, Indians, Savages, Squaw, and Tribe” as derogatory terms that would not be allowed.
Wilk said he was astounded to learn that “squaw” was not already banned, saying, “When I learned what that meant, I was horrified.” According to the Department of the Interior, which outlawed the use of the word being used federally in 2021, “the term has historically been used as an offensive ethnic, racial, and sexist slur, particularly for indigenous women.”
Danielle Cirelli, executive council treasurer for the Habematolel Pomo of Upper Lake in Northern California and soon-to-be chair of the council, said many indigenous people refuse to even use the word, instead calling it “the S-word.”
“Many non-tribal people might not understand the impacts that a name or a mascot can have on a group of people who have been historically and consistently threatened, forgotten and mistreated,” Cirelli said. “All of this leads to generational trauma, especially for our youths, and we believe schools should be a safe place for all youth and indigenous youth students should not have to attend a school that is mocking their culture.”
Estrada brought a picture of the current Hart yearbook that a current Native American student at Hart sent to her that showed the different iterations of the “Indian” that the school had used throughout its history, from 1949 to 1994. She said while she was told at Hart district governing board meetings that “it was never that bad,” this “shows that there’s a lot of work to do to educate.”
Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh, R-Redlands, vice chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she is happy to support the bill and thanked Estrada for sharing her story, but wanted it to be known that there are some people who take great pride in their school mascots.
“It was not necessarily in a negative light, but for some of these individuals, they’re proud of their mascots in their schools,” Bogh said.
As the bill is currently written, public schools that currently use one of the aforementioned terms as a nickname or mascot would be allowed to continue to use uniforms or other materials bearing that name so long as those were purchased prior to July 1, 2026. For that to be the case, however, schools must: select a new mascot; refrain from purchasing or acquiring new uniforms or other material (yearbooks, newspapers, etc.) using a derogatory term; and refrain from purchasing or constructing marquees, signs or other fixtures using a derogatory term.
Should school districts be forced to make purchases due to this bill, the state is required to reimburse districts for certain costs.
The Hart district is currently reviewing the costs associated with Hart High’s mascot switch. Hart Principal Jason d’Autremont said the following changes will be needed:
- New gym floors and scoreboard.
- Painting across the campus.
- Team uniforms.
- School apparel.
- Logos and branding.
This is not the first time that the Legislature has tried to impose such a ban on school nicknames and mascots. Between 2002 and 2005, former Assemblywoman Jackie Goldberg, D-Los Angeles, introduced several bills attempting to prohibit the use of Native American terms as mascots or nicknames. She eventually pushed two bills through the Legislature to only ban the use of “Redskins,” but both were vetoed by then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Representatives from the ACLU California Action, the California Teachers Association, the Los Angeles Office of Education and multiple indigenous tribes spoke on Wednesday in support of the bill. State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond also supported it.
“As you heard from the witness’s testimony, there are deep, inflicted, painful wounds from this practice of racism and cultural appropriation,” Thurmond said. “After all this nation and the state has done to the first people of the state, this is the least that we can do is to change this practice once and for all.”
There were no speakers in opposition.
