MADISON, Wis. (WTAQ) - The state’s education department is thinking about making all 35 Wisconsin schools with Indian mascots and logos prove that they don’t discriminate.
A state law passed in May allowed the Department of Public Instruction to make schools change their Indian monikers if the agency believes they’re racist. The law created a system in which residents must file complaints before the DPI could review the nick-names.
But at a hearing today, department officials said they wanted to list all the school names and mascots it believes are discriminatory and then make all those schools defend themselves, whether a complaint is filed or not.
Earlier this week, the DPI ordered the Osseo-Fairchild School District to drop its Chieftains logo and mascot. Similar complaints are pending in Oconomowoc and Kewaunee.
Under the law, schools found to be discriminatory must change their logos and nicknames in a year or face possible fines of up to a thousand dollars a day.
