Students use controversial Indian head logo in t-shirt fundraiser

This picture was put on Twitter on March 2 by the PV Sports "Fear the Indian" account. It is one of the photos that could have been used to identify which students were at this game.

Twitter

This picture was put on Twitter on March 2 by the PV Sports “Fear the Indian” account. It is one of the photos that could have been used to identify which students were at this game.

Madison Gallo, Staff Editor
April 16, 2016

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.”