The Southern York County School District board voted 7-2 to bring the logo back, despite criticism from opponents who alleged the board lacked cultural sensitivity, stood on the wrong side of history, and advanced a far-right conservative agenda. Douglas Brent, a parent with children at the high school, supported the return of the previous logo. "Nobody was trying to be demeaning to the local Indian tribes that were here. I think it's more demeaning to take that away from them. It would be better to reinstate it to show our sense of respect towards that heritage here," he told a local NBC affiliate. Debate over the logo started in 2020 when a petition circulated at Susquehannock High School. The mascot was retired the following year, according to the York Dispatch. Last November, five new members were elected to the school board after running with the Indigenous mascot on their campaign materials, including billboards, campaign literature, t-shirts, magnets, and stickers, the Dispatch reported. The board members vowed to push back against “woke” ideology, explaining in campaign materials, “We will strive to create an orderly environment, with space in the day allocated for students to engage in private contemplation, prayer, or mindfulness activities.” A Native American group lobbied for the return of the prior logo, saying that removing it erased indigenous people. "The SYCSD school board stands as a role model and blueprint for other communities fighting for their Native names and imagery," the North Dakota-based Native American Guardians Association (NAGA) said. Eunice Davidson, president of NAGA, said reverting to the former logo was “the right thing” to do. “Why do you want to take away and hurt a culture that is such a minority in this country?” Davidson, a Dakota Sioux, said. “I’m happy you folks are doing this. That you are fighting back and taking back your community ... that’s why you were elected.” Yet, even despite support from the Native American community, locals still believe that the old imagery is offensive. "It is insensitive, and it's not something that really represents us as a school,” said Danielle Williman, an alumni who helped design the new look. “It's not something we can represent,” she said. “Also, it's just pretty outdated in terms of design and it was pretty inconsistent among the branding – sweatshirts, all the merch and the letterheads and all that other stuff was really inconsistent.”A Pennsylvania school board just voted to reinstate a logo depicting a Native American man.
