Top officials at the Brattleboro Union High School say the school should drop a mascot image some deem racist, but continue with the Colonels as the school’s team names. Superintendent Ronald Stahley and Principal James Day wrote a joint letter suggesting that compromise solution to debate over the name and symbol.
That debate came to the fore in October, when the Brattleboro Reformer published a guest column saying the Colonel evoked a southern slave owner. Since then, a majority of students have voted to keep the name and symbol, while a majority of the faculty have voted to change them.
The school board is to decide the question on January 19, Martin Luther King Junior Day.