FANS RALLY FOR BIRMINGHAM HIGH; PRO-BRAVES GROUP FIGHTS FOR MASCOT.Byline: David R. Baker Daily News Staff Writer Angry that their school's athletes can no longer be the Braves, a group of Birmingham High School Birmingham High School is a public coeducational high school in the neighborhood/district of Lake Balboa in the San Fernando Valley section of the city of Los Angeles, California. The school is a part of District One of the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). parents and alumni said Friday they will continue fighting with petition drives or other action if the Board of Education doesn't give them back their team name. First, protesters would give the board a chance to reconsider its Sept. 8 decision changing Birmingham's name, mascot and Indian-head logo. The change had long been sought by American Indian American Indian or Native American or Amerindian or indigenous American Any member of the various aboriginal peoples of the Western Hemisphere, with the exception of the Eskimos (Inuit) and the Aleuts. activists offended by mascots. On Friday, members of Save Our Braves said they would consider stronger action if their complaints, and a 1,500-signature petition, failed to change board members' minds. ``We're not asking - we're demanding that they revoke this action,'' said Frank Arrigo, a 1964 Birmingham graduate and co-chairman of the group. Although Save Our Braves was still reviewing its options, Arrigo said a lawsuit against the board remained a possibility. ``We believe they have infringed on the first amendment rights of students,'' said Arrigo, who practices law in Encino. Birmingham alumni pointed out that the school's logo, a profile of an American Indian face, was actually modeled after Pontiac, a legendary chief who united numerous tribes to fight white incursion in·cur·sion n. 1. An aggressive entrance into foreign territory; a raid or invasion. 2. The act of entering another's territory or domain. 3. into the Great Lakes Great Lakes, group of five freshwater lakes, central North America, creating a natural border between the United States and Canada and forming the largest body of freshwater in the world, with a combined surface area of c.95,000 sq mi (246,050 sq km). area during colonial times. Jim Rowe Jim Rowe (born 1978) was the 2006 Republican nominee for State Senator in Illinois' 39th against Democratic incumbent Don Harmon but received less than 30% of the vote against Harmon in 2006. On May 15, 2007 he annouced he would challange incumbent Senator Dick Durbin in 2008. , a 1955 graduate of the school and part of the student council that first suggested naming Birmingham teams the Braves, said Pontiac was a noble figure, not the kind of degrading cartoon that American Indians American Indians: see Americas, antiquity and prehistory of the; Natives, Middle American; Natives, North American; Natives, South American. detest de·test tr.v. de·test·ed, de·test·ing, de·tests To dislike intensely; abhor. [French détester, from Latin d . Rowe, who is part Occalla Indian, said he was proud of the name and the logo. ``It wasn't a cartoon - it was a real Indian,'' Rowe said. ``He was a real hero to some of us.'' CAPTION(S): 2 Photos Photo: (1) Birmingham High School parents and alumni protest a name change Friday in Van Nuys. (2) Richarda Logacz, Birmingham alumna and mother of two students there (not pictured), holds a sign supporting the Braves mascot. Terri Thuente/Daily News |
|
||||||||||||
Printer friendly
Cite/link
Email
Feedback
Reader Opinion