NYS mascot ban: Wantagh, Connetquot districts granted extensions to comply with mandate

Two Long Island school districts have been granted extensions to comply with a ban on Native American mascots, names and imagery — just weeks before the June 30 deadline, state education officials said.

The Wantagh school district will now have an additional year to comply with the mandate, while Connetquot’s deadline will be March 1, 2026, the officials said. The upstate Avon Central School District in Livingston County has also received an extension through Oct. 1.

J.P. O'Hare, the state education department's communications director, said in a statement that the extensions were requested by the districts and approved because they showed "good faith progress towards eliminating their existing mascots."

In Wyandanch, meanwhile, schools Superintendent Erik Wright said in a statement that the district is in the process of wrapping up a community survey to determine a new mascot. The district has narrowed down their choices to the Dragons, Panthers and Wolves.

"A mascot will be identified next week pending [school] board approval," he said.

Deadline nears

The state Board of Regents has banned the use of Native American mascots, team names and logos in public schools. Districts were given until June 30 to comply with the regulation.

Supporters say the mascots and other imagery promote negative stereotypes of Native Americans, but critics have argued they are a source of community pride and it would be costly for districts to rebrand themselves.

The mandate affected 13 districts on Long Island, most of which have taken steps to retire their mascots and names. 

The Wantagh, Connetquot, Wyandanch and Massapequa districts challenged the mandate in federal court, seeking to either keep their names or nullify the state regulation, Newsday has reported.

After a judge ruled against the districts in March, Wantagh, Connetquot and Wyandanch filed appeals. The Massapequa district, which has a Native American mascot and goes by the name Chiefs, has filed an amended complaint.

State officials said the Massapequa and Wyandanch school districts did not request a deadline extension. 

The state has said school districts that do not comply by the deadline risk losing state aid or facing the removal of school officers. State officials told Newsday this week that the Education Department will "promptly investigate any alleged noncompliance" but "no consequence will occur automatically."

Officials in the Connetquot district, which is known as the Thunderbirds, declined to comment Thursday. The Massapequa district did not respond to a request for comment.

One-year reprieve

Wantagh schools Superintendent John McNamara said the extension gives the district time to complete work related to removing mascot imagery, while also letting the litigation process play out. Wantagh has agreed to give up its mascot but is seeking to keep the Warriors name.

McNamara said the district has replaced mascot imagery on the middle and high school gym floors with the letter "W," presented the state with a "comprehensive plan" on potential changes and established a committee to explore their options related to a mascot change.

"The one-year extension will give us the time to see how this plays out in the courts," McNamara said. "How well this plays out between the state and the U.S. Department of Education, and then we could make more informed changes throughout the year, next year, depending on the outcome of all those things." 

The extensions were confirmed about a week after U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon said the mascot ban violated Title VI of the Civil Rights Act. If the state does not accept the findings and agree to rescind the mandate, the matter could be referred to the U.S. Department of Justice.

But in a letter to the U.S. Education Department's Office of Civil Rights, the state Education Department noted Thursday that efforts to challenge the ban had failed in federal court.

"In denying relief to several school districts (including the Massapequa Union Free School District), the court acknowledged NYSED’s substantial public interest in 'furthering a discrimination- and harassment-free learning environment in all of New York’s public schools,'" Daniel Morton-Bentley, counsel and deputy commissioner at the state Education Department, wrote in the letter. "OCR is not a court of last resort for unsuccessful litigants."

Morton-Bentley also addressed the federal agency's argument that the regulation was discriminatory because it only banned Native American mascots and other imagery but "allowed names, mascots and logos that appear to have been derived from other racial or ethnic groups, such as the 'Dutchmen' and the 'Huguenots.'"

He wrote that the Education Department was "willing to explore broadening the scope" of the ban to include mascots that are “derived from or connected to [any] racial or ethnic groups used by schools and districts in the state of New York.”

He concluded, "I look forward to meeting with you to discuss how to support all students by eradicating harmful mascots." 

The U.S. Department of Education did not return a request for comment.