A New Nevada Law Bans Racial Mascots In Schools And ‘Sundown Sirens’

Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak met with members of the Nevada Indian Commission in Carson City on Friday as he signed legislation removing racially discriminatory identifiers or language from schools. Additionally, counties can no longer sound “sundown sirens,” which once signified it was time for certain people to leave town.

The law will require schools to change any name, logo, mascot, song or identifier that is “racially discriminatory” or “associated with the Confederate States of America or a federally recognized Indian tribe.”

Under Assembly Bill 88, exceptions can be made only with tribal approval. The legislation applies to public schools and charters, universities and community colleges.

Friday’s signing took place at the Stewart Indian School, which served as a federally run Native American educational institute for 90 years. Children were forced to attend, plucked from their families and homes to assimilate them into American culture, the National Park Service said.

The American West was not kind to its original people. But another portion of AB 88 aims to amend part of Nevada’s troublesome past. Not that long ago, some Western communities had policies in place that required people of color to leave town by nightfall, member station KUNR previously reported. They became known as “sundown towns.”

Read more https://nativesociety.org/a-new-nevada-law-bans-racial-mascots-in-schools-and-sundown-sirens