Bellefonte High School Alums Want Red Raider Mascot Replaced

BELLEFONTE – Some alumni from the Bellefonte School District want the district high school’s Red Raider mascot replaced.

According to the Centre Daily Times, some six Bellefonte alums are circulating a petition asking the district to come up with a new mascot not hostile to Native Americans. By noon Thursday more than 200 people had signed the petition which calls for a mascot “anti-racist, anti-bias, all inclusive.”

Bellefonte alum and petition co-organizer Steph Herbstritt told the CDT the current mascot invokes racism and prejudice by referring to Native Americans as “red” and “raiders.”

“When I think of Bellefonte, I think of world-class trout fishing and historical places downtown and great leaders of Pennsylvania. I don’t think of Native Americans and I don’t think of racism,” Herbstritt told the Centre County paper. “I think we need to stop promoting that image as a school.”

Bellefonte school officials did not have an immediate comment on the effort. A number of central Pennsylvania high schools have Native American-related mascots. These include the Cameron County Raiders, the Shikellamy Braves and the Muncy Indians.

The CDT reported a database of mascots in the United States curated by Terry Borning shows at least 486 schools reference “Raiders,” including 15 in Pennsylvania. About 82% of the 486 team names belong to high schools.

Indiana University of Pennsylvania was the last college in the state to change its mascot from “Indians” to “Crimson Hawks; that occurred in 2007.