Amityville drops suit over NYS ban on Native American names
The Amityville Warriors signage, seen in 2023. The school district has dropped its lawsuit opposing a state ban on Native American names. Credit: Peter Frutkoff
The Amityville school district dropped a federal lawsuit that sought to keep its Warriors nickname despite the state ban on Native American names, mascots and imagery, according to a court document filed late Monday.
Although the district provided no explanation in its two-page filing in U.S. District Court in Central Islip, several Board of Education members recently voiced concern about rising legal fees and the unlikelihood of success.
"I feel like we’re in a losing lawsuit," board member Wendy Canestro said at a meeting last month.
The district has been plagued by financial woes and the school board in March approved 47 teacher and staff layoffs to account for a $3.6 million deficit. It separately avoided closing an elementary school after a last-minute state aid infusion.
Amityville sued the state Board of Regents last year seeking a federal judge's permission to keep the Warriors name, citing a four-year, $1 million rebranding effort by the district that led to the removal of all Native American imagery from school grounds.
Amityville’s lawsuit called it "illogical and a huge waste of taxpayer dollars to force the district to have to change the already rebranded Warriors name and replace all of these newly purchased items again."
Superintendent Gina Talbert said in a statement that the search for a new name will include input from students, staff and residents.
"We are committed to collaborating with our community to thoughtfully replace the Warrior name," she said. "Together, we will work to select a new identity that reflects our shared values and promotes inclusivity while honoring the spirit of our school community."
School districts statewide have until the end of the school year to comply with the ban by removing all references on property. Of the 13 Long Island districts impacted, eight have announced new nicknames or said they will comply by the deadline.
Four others have active litigation related to the state's mascot ban.
The Wantagh and Wyandanch districts filed lawsuits in federal court seeking to keep their names, also Warriors, and the Connetquot and Massapequa districts sued to render the state's ban "null."
Officials from the four districts confirmed Tuesday they are still committed to the lawsuits.
At Amityville's September public meeting, board members said they were told the lawsuit likely wouldn't be decided until spring. They expressed concern about the financial ramifications of rushing to meet the state's deadline if a judge ruled against them.
The district already has spent several thousand dollars more in legal fees on the lawsuit than its initial cap of $18,000, board president Lisa Johnson said at the meeting. The district faced another $10,000 to $20,000 in attorney fees before a possible decision, board member Caroline Fanning added.
"We’re really pushing the envelope by keep waiting and we keep dumping the money into this," Canestro said at the meeting.
Reached Tuesday, Canestro said she recognizes the pride the community has in the Warriors name and still believes "this is overreach by the state." But she said she believes it's in the district's best interest to abandon the lawsuit.
"The district is working through financial instability and we simply cannot afford to allocate more resources into a lawsuit with no guarantee of outcome," she said.
Amityville's lawsuit had also cited how the state gave an upstate district permission to retain the Warriors name. Board members said they've since learned that district petitioned the state with the approval of the local Native American tribe, something Amityville does not have.
"The district decided not to further litigate this matter due to the … associated costs that would have been incurred, which could have resulted in [an] unfavorable decision," Johnson said in a statement to Newsday.
Jim Baumbach is an award-winning investigative reporter at Newsday, where he has worked since 1998. He spent two decades in the sports department, where he covered every professional team and league, including events such as the Super Bowl and World Series.
