The Iron County School District is reexamining the school mascot at Cedar High School. Since its founding in 1943, Cedar High has been the home of the Redmen.
Although the District acknowledges that at the time, the name was meant to honor the area’s Native American heritage and remains a source of local pride, it also recognizes that others, local and otherwise consider the moniker a racial slur, says Rich Nielson, director of secondary education at Iron County School District.
"The difficulty obviously comes in when issues that develop because we are in a global society," he said. "And we have students that become targets because of them showing their Redman pride."
The school district is quick to point out the issue has not come forward at this time because of any criticism from the local Paiute Indian Tribe of Utah, also headquartered in Cedar City, although members of the tribe have been asked to join the committee formed to gather public comment and recommend to the school board whether to keep or change the name.
The committee has organized two public meetings to hear from the community on the matter. The first is Tuesday, December 4. The second meeting will two weeks later, Tuesday, December 18. Both meetings, on the 4th and the 18th, are at 7 p.m. at Cedar High School.
According to the website MaxPreps.com, a national site focusing on high school sports, there are no less than 18 other high schools in America who also sport the nickname, Redmen.
