Brimfield Superintendent reacts to House Bill that would ban Native American mascots
BRIMFIELD, Ill. (WMBD) — A bill that would ban Native American mascots in the state of Illinois has cleared the Illinois House, according to Capitol News Illinois.
Central Illinois schools, including the Brimfield Indians, would be affected by the legislation if it passes the senate.
'We've been preparing for this probably 15, 20 years,' Brimfield superintendent Chad Jones said. 'I mean, this is an old thing. This is not something new. Proactively, we are preparing for it so that we wouldn't have to change everything in our schools.'
Jones said that the high school, when it moved to its new building over a decade ago, adopted a more general 'B' with a feather, as opposed to a Native American as the logo.
He also shared that the grade school's gym, which still has the word 'Indians' on the floor, is set to be re-done to have the standard 'B' with a feather sometime this summer.
With the potential change, and many years of planning for this potential day from the school district, Jones talked about what potential names they've floated around.
'Nothing formal or really decided, just some discussion,' Jones said. 'I've heard bison, I've heard Red Hawks. We would probably leave it up to the staff and students to kind of narrow it down to maybe three choices and then have like a community type vote, if that's what we had to do.'
If the bill is adopted, the deadline for a submitted name, logo and/or mascot change would be July 1, 2026.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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