While allowing Confederate names to stand, Brown did sign Assembly Bill 30, which bars California schools from using “Redskins” as their mascot.
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The ban would affect only four schools that now use the Redskins name – Calaveras High School and Gustine High School in northern California and Chowchilla High School and Tulare Union High School in the central part of the state. California, the most populous state in the nation, is the first to pass legislation restricting the use of the epithet in its schools statewide.
California is the first state to implement such a ban.
‘They have set a shining example for other states across the country, and for the next generation, by demonstrating a commitment to the American ideals of inclusion and mutual respect’. NBC News reports that California has the largest number of public school students in the country, according to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Change the Mascot is a grassroots campaign that works to educate the public about the damaging effects on Native Americans arising from the continued use of the R-word.
Native Americans celebrated the move.
“Local governments are laboratories of democracy which, under most circumstances, are quite capable of deciding for themselves which of their buildings and parks should be named, and after whom”, Brown said in a statement. A federal panel ruled past year that the team trademark for NFL’s Washington Redskins should be canceled, but the team is challenging the decision.
The Washington National Football League team has refused to change its name; opposition has been sporadic, and the issue has become polarizing.
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Reuters reports that Brown hedged his bets by making clear that his veto of a state ban on Confederate names does not prevent local leaders and communities from changing them.
