Mahopac Central School District

Mahopac Central School District is a school district headquartered in Mahopac, New York.

History

Circa 2014 superintendent Thomas J. Manko left his position. The Mahopac school board selected Forest City Regional School District superintendent John Kopicki as the successor, but Kopicki chose not to take the position.[1]

Anthony DiCarlo became the superintendent in 2018.[2] He formerly served as a principal in the New Rochelle School District.[3]

Schools
Secondary
  • Mahopac High School
  • Mahopac Middle School
  • Mahopac Falls Academy (alternative middle school)
Primary
  • Austin Road Elementary School
  • Fulmar Road Elementary School
  • Lakeview Elementary School


Controversies

2014 Racism Incident

At a high school basketball game, Mahopac students and spectators were accused of verbally attacking basketball players from Mount Vernon, New York, with "racial taunts of an abhorrent nature."[4] After eventually losing the game, Mahopac students then took to Twitter to continue the harassment, specifically focusing their attacks towards African-American students. Once word began to spread of the incident, students from other school districts began to support the statements made by Mount Vernon, citing similar issues with Mahopac students.[5] Upon investigation, 3 Mahopac students were suspended.[6] As a result of the incident, Mahopac's varsity basketball coach at the time, Kevin Downes, stepped down from his position.[7]

2019 Racism Incident

Similar to the incident in 2014, Mahopac High School junior varsity lacrosse players were accused of racist behaviors during a game against the team from New Rochelle, New York. A parent of a New Rochelle athlete reported that Mahopac athletes referred to the New Rochelle athletes as "[expletive] Mexicans" and that they refused to shake hands with African-American athletes.[8] Mahopac's Superintendent, Anthony DiCarlo, immediately got in touch with New Rochelle administrators about the incident, responding to the accusations by stating, "We must be ever-vigilant when confronting behavior that runs counter to expected norms...Anyone found responsible will be held accountable in accordance with district policies and procedures." However, no reports of disciplinary actions came from the school district afterwards.

2019 Mascot Controversy

In October of 2019, students and alumni of Mahopac High School created a petition to retire the usage of Mahopac's "Indian" mascot. However, within days, a counter-petition was developed to express the significance of the mascot.

The retirement of culturally insensitive mascots has been an on-going issue throughout athletics. More recently, the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) distributed a "self evaluation" to its member institutions for teams to examine the use of potentially offensive imagery with their mascot choice. This examination was done in accordance with NCAA policy that requires each member institution to maintain an "atmosphere of respect for and sensitivity to the dignity of every person."[9] As a result, fourteen schools either removed all references to Native American culture or were deemed not to have references to Native American culture as part of their athletics programs.[10] Similar proceedings have occurred across a multitude of sports at the professional level.

Despite the actions of the NCAA, Native American individuals publicly expressing the insensitivity of the mascot since the 1940s[11], and other concerns from student and alumni within Mahopac, the school district chose to keep the Mahopac Indian mascot, stating that they "determined that the Mahopac Indian was an appropriate symbol of pride, as it honored the Algonquin Indians who inhabited Mahopac long before any of us."[12] The issue was reopened in June of 2020, after students again petitioned the school district to not only retire the mascot but also address ongoing racial injustices prevalent in the schools.

On June 18th, 2020, residents tried to express continued concerns pertaining to the insensitive mascot during a virtual school board meeting. However, despite submitting questions before the deadline, the topic was never brought up by both school officials or board members.[13]

gollark: I found a 4G PB pumpkin...
gollark: *also missed probably all of them*
gollark: How can I tell if an egg I'm looking at is an alt without picking it up?
gollark: Ah, so not the omens. A shame.
gollark: Wait, which saltkins are we atalking about here?

References
  1. Ramaswamy, Swapna Venugopal (2014-05-28). "Mahopac school board to discuss superintendent search". The Journal News. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  2. Dumas, Bob (2018-01-19). "School Board Picks Local Resident for New Mahopac Superintendent". Mahopac News. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  3. Taliaferro, Lanning (2018-01-22). "New Rochelle Principal Named Mahopac Schools Chief". Patch Southeast-Brewster, NY. Retrieved 2020-01-28.
  4. Thomson, Nancy Haggerty and Josh. "Students suspended after racial slurs at basketball game". USA TODAY. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  5. Haggerty, Nancy. "Mahopac racist remarks not new, some say". The Journal News. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  6. Thomson, Nancy Haggerty and Josh. "Mahopac students suspended for racial slurs after Mt. Vernon game". The Journal News. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  7. Thomson, Josh. "'Heartbroken' Mahopac basketball coach resigns". The Journal News. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  8. "Mahopac lacrosse players accused of racist behavior in game vs. New Rochelle". westchester.news12.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  9. "NCAA Takes Aim At Indian Mascots". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  10. "National Collegiate Athletic Association - Press Release Archive". fs.ncaa.org. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  11. Hylton, J. Gordon (June 11, 2020). "BEFORE THE REDSKINS WERE THE REDSKINS: THE USE OF NATIVE AMERICAN TEAM NAMES IN THE FORMATIVE ERA OF AMERICAN SPORTS, 1857-1933" (PDF).
  12. "MahopacCentralSchoolDistrict on Instagram: "Please take a moment to read this message from the Board of Education. The link is the document in bio."". Instagram. Retrieved 2020-06-11.
  13. Solis, Marcus (2020-06-19). "Mahopac High School mascot stirs up controversy". ABC7 New York. Retrieved 2020-06-22.
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