Description
"Redgals" is the nickname for the school's girls' teams.
In 2014 school officials began discussing changing the school's mascot name, The Redmen, in response to controversy over Native American mascots.
In 2019, another student group advocated for a name change and brought the issue back into the news. Students and the community pushed back: a petition on change.org titled REDMEN FOREVER!!! that asks the Board of Ed to keep the name gathered over 3,000 signatures and the local paper, The Killingly Villager, ran 7 letters to the editor in the op-ed section about the issue, all 7 in opposition to a name change and none in favor of a name change. A website in favor of the name change, killinglyredmen.com, was launched on June 21, 2019. Red Hawks was selected as the new mascot by 80% of students in an October, 2019 vote. On January 9, 2020, the Board of Education voted to reinstate "Redmen" with a redesigned logo to reduce the impression of a negative stereotype.
“We stopped letting it be about the students and doing what’s right. And people can be mad about the process and people can be mad about whatever it is that they think they are losing but the people who are directly Impacted have spoken and we chose to not listen to them,” said Hoween Flexer, Killingly Board of Education.
"The Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council has very publicly decried the use of Native American mascots, even when the organization using said mascots believes that they are in some way flattering or used as a means of honoring Native Americans," wrote Nipmuc Nation Tribal Council Chairman Kenneth Gould Sr. in a letter to the board. "Native American mascots, often portrayed as caricatures or cartoons, are demeaning to Native Americans and it is our opinion that they should not be used."