LOCAL
Anna Colletto, The Oklahoma Eagle
School board members heard from about half a dozen alumni of Central and Webster. Photo: Matthew Perez/The Oklahoma Eagle
“You declared war on my mascot,” Kirby Counce, Central High School alumnus, declared during a packed Tulsa school board meeting Monday, condemning the district’s proposed policy that would prohibit any school imagery or branding based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion.
Tulsa Public Schools’ Central and Webster campuses would be immediately affected if the policy passes. While the Central Braves and the Webster Warriors could keep their names, their logos and mascots would have to change.
Central Middle and High schools use arrowhead images in their logos while Webster Middle and High schools use an Indigenous man’s face in logos and the football team enters the field through an inflatable tipi.
“I love my Braves, and until I take my last breath, you’re gonna know it,” Counce said during public comment. “I love my Warriors — even though we fought each other in high school — and I’m gonna stand side by side with the people wearing blue.”
The draft policy targets “discriminatory” school branding and mascots that “may reasonably be perceived as offensive, culturally insensitive, or perpetuating stereotypes.” That definition includes any mascot, symbol or logo evocative of stereotypes based on race, ethnicity, gender or religion.
Board members say the proposed change came directly from student feedback, consistent requests from Tulsa’s Indigenous nations and the district’s Indian Education Parent Committee.
A “lack of education and appreciation in cultural acknowledgement and sensitivity that makes fun of their culture,” is a significant contributor to Indigenous students feeling uncomfortable in school, said Superintendent Ebony Johnson.
“That tipi depiction on that field is not an accurate depiction of their culture,” Johnson said, referring to Webster. “They are offended by that tipi being blown up on the football field.”
Numerous alumni and parents from both schools came out to voice disapproval for the proposal.
“How is it possible to honor Native American heritage without imagery?” said Brittany Calvert, pastor at Carbondale Assembly and a graduate of Webster. “If imagery is prohibited, how will our schools still honor Native heritage?”
Larry Williamson drew parallels to Union Public Schools. Union renamed itself the Redhawks in 2021, after 75 years as the “Redskins” — a name Washington, D.C.’s NFL team also ditched in 2020. Williamson saw the TPS proposal as a slippery slope, and called it “another cancel culture attempt by leftist social justice warriors to divide Americans with race issues that don’t even exist until they come along to create them.”
A majority of board members voiced support for the proposal and the student voices that spurred it.
“I think it’s just important to share that this isn’t a knee jerk reaction, and it isn’t something that’s just happened overnight,” said board member Stacey Woolley. “I will stand for the students who have been begging, and their families who have been begging for six years to feel as though they are as important as in the other culture that we would not be okay with making caricatures of.”
Board members John Croisant and Kyra Carby both celebrated the engagement from alumni, and encouraged them to continue attending board meetings and providing feedback.
Student outcomes and teacher vacancies
While the bulk of the public showed up to discuss mascots, LeeAnne Power Jimenez, vice president of the Tulsa Classroom Teachers Association, challenged people to keep up this level of zeal for other district issues.
“I invite everyone to come back with this amount of passion for teacher retention,” Jimenez said.
TPS has made progress in teacher vacancies ahead of the first day, marking 38 this year compared to 127 in the 2024-25 school year. However, TCTA leadership pressed for continued teacher support.
The district also announced it exceeded its five year goal for high schoolers pursuing a College and Career Readiness diploma by nearly 10%. In May, nearly 60% of TPS’ high schoolers were considered “on track.”
Every comprehensive high school showed gains across every subgroup, with underrepresented students like multilingual learners and students of color making the “largest strides,” according to Johnson.
“The goal was that we ensure our students have a plan for what they’re going to do when they graduate,” she said. “We don’t ever want to sell our students a dream deferred, we want to sell them a dream actualized.”
Chronic absenteeism remains one of the most significant predictors in the district. Over 75% of students who attended school regularly were on track this spring, compared to 43% of chronically absent students which is defined as missing at least 10% of the school year.
The board unanimously passed updates to preexisting policy on technology, revising guidelines for student use of cell phones and other devices to align with the state’s new “bell-to-bell” cell phone ban for all public schools. All personal electronic devices, like cell phones and smart watches, are now banned in the district from the first bell to dismissal.
New definitions for tardiness and truancy also passed unanimously.
The next board meeting is on Sept. 8.
Anna Colletto is the education reporter for the Tulsa Local News Initiative. You can reach her at anna.colletto@localnewsfortulsa.org.
