‘ REDSKIN ’
leaves an impression on a student editor and her school
by Thomas Eveslage
G
illian McGoldrick had never thought twice about her school ’ s sports mascot when she began her junior year in 2013 as editor in chief of the student newspaper , the Playwickian , and she had never heard of Donna Boyle . Gillian didn ’ t know the 30-year resident whose father was Cherokee- Choctaw and whose son was starting Neshaminy High School or that Boyle had been trying for more than a year to get the school to change its sports mascot , arguing that the image and name Redskins are racial slurs , insensitive and discriminatory .
The Playwickian reporter covering a school board meeting early that fall heard that Boyle , tired of sparring with school officials , had filed a complaint with the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission . The reporter asked Gillian , “ Isn ’ t this like using the word ‘ nigger ’?”
The staff did research , had lengthy discussions ( none about changing the mascot ), then voted 14-7 to just stop using the word in the paper . Why ? As Gillian said recently , “ When President Obama said what he did about the Washington Redskins , we thought , ‘ Why not do what other professional journalists are doing ? Why not be ethical ?’”
“ We didn ’ t really think the students would notice or care after a few issues ,” Gillian said . “ We thought it ’ s the right thing to do , the human thing .” An editorial in the first issue told readers , “ The change is not … for the sake of political correctness itself , but for the sake of being respectful and fair to an entire race .”
“ We knew students would be mad at first ,” Gillian said . “ And they were . We were clearly in the minority .” But it was interesting , she added , that without consciously avoiding the word , nobody used it in their stories — that year or the next .
Gillian was editor-in-chief for two years at Neshaminy and this year is a sophomore journalism major at Temple University . But the issue her newspaper staff raised continues to plague the suburban Philadelphia high school . As it had several years earlier , heavy-