SCARBOROUGH, MAINE - The Portland Press Herald covered a growing controversy surrounding Scarborough High School’s mascot this morning, and featured comments by Sean Flaherty:

One theory about the origin of the word is that it referred to a scalp that settlers would turn in to local governments to collect a bounty for killing an American Indian. That theory is what sparked the effort in 2000 to change the name – an effort that got under way at the urging of a student speech and debate team, said board member Jacquelyn Perry, who was on the board in 2000.

“I would never want us to be insulting to any ethnic group, and if we have Native Americans who would be offended by the use of that name as our mascot, then I don’t want to offend them,” she said.

Sean Flaherty, who was a member of that speech and debate team, said the group’s research indicated that American Indians would find the name “as offensive to them as the ‘N’ word is to African-Americans.”

Flaherty, who is running for a state House of Representatives seat as a Democrat, said people are making too much of a nickname.

Red Storm, he said, never really meant much to him as a member of the swim team, but “Scarborough means something to me.”

“I don’t care what you call us,” he said. “You put on the uniform and go out and represent the town. It’s not the mascot, not the symbol, it’s the big ‘S.”‘

Go to the Portland Press Herald Story Online

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