‘Can’t Cancel the Past’: School District Reinstates Native American Logo

A Pennsylvania school district voted in favor of reinstating a Native American logo that was retired in 2021. The Southern York Couty School District school board voted 7-2 on Thursday to reinstate an indigenous…

Elizabeth WeibelJan 23, 20243 min read

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warrior, according to

The York Dispatch.

The decision to retire the logo came after calls for the school district to change the logo. While a petition to remove the Native american logo gained 850 signatures, a rival one to keep the logo gained roughly 3,800 signatures.

A study conducted by the 2020 board’s diversity committee found “there are no longer members of the Susquehannock tribe living in the district,” the Associated Press reported.

After retiring the logo, a new design featuring a black arrow going through a red “W” was created in an effort to “show movement and a forward, upward direction,” Wade Bowers, a graphic communications teacher, said in a statement.

“Students created the arrow from the letter W to represent the Warrior name,” Bowers explained. “They designed the arrow to show movement and a forward, upward direction symbolizing the district’s direction in academics, athletics and as a community.”

“What you’re doing, in my belief, is the right thing,” a representative with the Native american Guardians Association (NAGA) said during Thursday’s meeting. “And, I totally agree. Why do you want to take away and hurt a culture that’s such a minority in this country right now?”

While some members of the community supported the decision to reinstate the logo, parents such as Katy Isennock, a Native american alumna of the school district and parent to children who attend schools in the district, told WGAL that the community had taken a “step back.”

“The issue is important to me, to show my kids that we have a voice and we need to use it,” Isennock told the outlet. “Moving forward is a little hard when we just took a step back but the focus will be on our kids and their mental health.”