Fundraising efforts are currently underway to pay back Ramapo High School after damage was done to the bleachers at their school by Pascack Valley’s student fan section on March 2. However, there was confusion and an overall disconnect between the students who were given the responsibility to pay back Ramapo and the administrators overseeing it.

While at the North 1, Group 3 sectional quarter-finals for boys basketball, the bleachers were damaged in a few spots by our student fan section.

The day after the game, PV Principal Mr. Tom DeMaio said that he called Ramapo to make sure everything between the two schools was okay and to find out if PV needed to reimburse Ramapo for the damage done. Ramapo eventually ended up sending PV a bill of over $840.

The students put in charge of collecting the money was determined for the most part by a photo taken at the game, since it could act as proof of who was there. The group of students, mostly seniors, were given free reign on how they were to reimburse the administration.

“I didn’t say [the students] had to fundraise, I just said they had to pay the bill,” DeMaio said.

Given the choice, the students decided to fundraise, and their primary fundraising idea was a t-shirt that reads “Fear the Indian” along with the Indian head logo. 

“We didn’t necessarily do it to offend people or raise eyebrows; we were just doing it to get the money and supply and demand. The Indian head is going out of business so a lot more people want it,” PV senior Jimmy Spillane said.

At first these shirts were approved by DeMaio, he said. 

However, shortly after he approved the shirts, DeMaio emailed the boys saying instead to hold off on selling the shirt because he wanted to “discuss the ‘Fear the Indian’ slogan.”

“[DeMaio] approved it, but then he told us that we couldn’t do it,” senior Joe Figueroa said.

However, Spillane, as an executive council member with mass email privileges, had by that time already sent an email out with the t-shirt order forms. 

Since the email had already been sent out, the boys decided to go forth and continue selling the shirt, even after DeMaio had told them to put a hold on it. 

“I think it was about 30 kids who ended up ordering them,” Spillane said. According to Figueroa, the t-shirt sales raised about $200 in profit.

The students never answered DeMaio’s email about not selling the shirts, and no further contact between the two parties was ever initiated, according to DeMaio. 

“To my knowledge the students haven’t started selling the shirts,” DeMaio said.

The sale of the shirts also prompted negative comments from members of the PV community. PV English teacher Mrs. Tracy Recine, several members of the Human Rights League, and Mrs. Diana McKenna, the HRL’s advisor, were all concerned about the logo on the shirt.

“I actually contacted the boys selling that shirt as well as the administration because I think that we as a school are phasing out that image and I was surprised to see it re-emerge,” Recine said.  

Spillane admitted to going forth in the selling of the shirt even with the negative responses to it. 

“There was one teacher [Recine] who asked if I could stop, but at that point it was Friday and the money was due on Monday, so we weren’t going to stop,” Spillane said. “Honestly, [the administration] said we just need to fundraise the money. However we can get it, that’s up to us, so they put it on the students to raise the money and they should’ve expected this to happen.” 

Fill out this form for a $12 shirt https://t.co/kYyHqeIKU5
Bring $ to @JoeFigs56 or @kyle_mcmanus10 #feartheindian pic.twitter.com/s6quxFPeFl

— PV Sports (@FeartheIndian) March 10, 2016

Coleman Crazies in full swing. 20 minutes til game time #feartheindian pic.twitter.com/qbChKQeZPc

— PV Sports (@FeartheIndian) March 2, 2016

Contrary to what numerous teachers and students in the PV community have believed, the Indian head logo is not going anywhere according to district and Board of Education officials.

Last year the Pascack Valley District’s superintendent, Erik Gundersen, announced that the BOE is going to “gradually change the emphasis from the Indian head logo to the PV block letters.”

However, Gundersen has revealed that PV will not be phasing out the Indian head logo.

Gundersen stated that he is not sure if this decision was articulated at any staff meetings throughout the two schools.

“If teachers read the board minutes and some of the articles that were in The Bergen Record, they would’ve known that the Board has taken no action in eliminating any mascot or logo from the district,” Gundersen said.

Both logos of PV, the Indian head and the PV block letters, will remain with no changes to their designs, according to Gundersen.

“My intent last summer was to phase out the Indian head, but the Board of Education made it quite clear that they are not looking to phase out the Indian head,” Gundersen said.

However, the Indian head has been taken off the official PV letterhead, which teachers use for things like sending student recommendation letters to colleges. The PV block letters are now on the letterhead instead.

“There are certainly people who can conclude that [the Indian head] is an outmoded symbol and it can be considered offensive,” Mr. Jeffrey Steinfeld, president of the Board of Education, said.

According to Steinfeld, this is why Gundersen made the decision to de-emphasize the logo in official places like the letterhead.

Mrs. Diana McKenna, adviser of the Human Rights League, felt that if the Indian logo “in any way sheds negative light on the district, then why is it not okay for a letterhead, but okay for a t-shirt?”

Steinfeld explained that the Board of Education is “not crazy about the symbol,” but they are “not looking to eliminate it.”

“And we’re certainly not looking for Pascack Valley to change being the Indians,” Steinfeld added.

McKenna felt that, while she disagrees with the logo and mascot, the administration should stay consistent.

“It’s being hypocritical. If you’re going to stand by it, you have to stand by it…. If you can’t put your full backing behind it, and put [the logo] on everything, then that’s speaking volumes,” McKenna said.