Sacred Sites Protection & Rights of Indigenous Tribes (SSP&RIT) advised the Vallejo City Unified School District Board of Education on November 20 to remove its mascot as it is offensive to Native Americans. The school board voted unanimously to abandon the high school's racist Apache mascot.

SSP&RIT stated, “Native mascots perpetuate the myth that Native America is purely historical and devoid of any contemporary relevance”. SSP&RIT said that the use of ethnic mascots touches on civil rights and that the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights has found that the use of Native American images and nicknames in schools should be avoided.

Speakers who stood in support of the removal of the mascot and addressed the School Board included Antonio “Tony” Gonzalez of the American Indian Movement (West), Kathi Hill of the Vallejo NAACP, Phillip Mehas of the ACLU of Northern California, and Richard Becker of A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition.

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See Also: SSP&RIT moves to have Vallejo High School mascot removed | Sacred Sites Protection & Rights of Indigenous Tribes