Our speech made it clear that all possible factors now point to the only acceptable answer coming from the School Committee when they vote on June 16^th will be to restore the name Redmen due to the following reasons:

1.)    The Town's Independent Lawyer's report states that:

     a.       The name “Redmen” does not violate any Federal, State or Local laws.

     b.      There are no statistics showing that the use of the name Redmen has had a   detrimental affect of any kind on any Natick student.

     c.       Despite its use for over 50 years, there has never been any formal complaint of discrimination from anyone regarding the use of the name Redmen.

     d.      The legal exposure to the School Committee and/or the Town by keeping the name Redmen is low to non-existent.

2.)    The Pro-Redmen mandate from the residents of Natick based on the March 25^th Referendum is overwhelming.

3.)    Native Americans are now reaching out to us to voice their support for our continued use of the Redmen name.

Therefore – the only possible motive for any School Committee member to not listen to the voters of Natick and continue to do away with the Redmen name would be for the purpose of furtherance of their individual personal and/or political agendas.

Read our summary article at the following link:

Natick Redmen: then, now, and forever  http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinions/x446777019

5/19/08 - GREAT NEWS - the Independent Lawyer's report was released at the SC meeting on 5/19/08 and it reads extremely positively for the Pro-Redmen supporters. See the newspaper article link below, or read the full legal report at this link:

http://www.natick.k12.ma.us/district/districtmaininfo/documents/Legal%20Opinion2.pdf

In brief the legal report concludes:

I. There is NOT a high probability of successful litigating against the Natick School Committee for its continued use of the name "Redmen" with or without the Logo.

a. There is NOT a legally cognizable claim under Title IX.

b. There are NO legally cognizable claims under Title VI.

c. There is NOT a legally cognizable claim under Massachusetts state law.

II. There is LOW risk of loss of Federal funds and/or State funds.

III. The Natick School District will most likely NOT be barred from participating in athletic or other extra-curricular events for its continued use of the name "Redmen" with or without the Logo of the head of a Native American.

IV. The use of the name "Redmen" with or without the Logo of the head of a Native American "may" violate the policies established by the Natick School Committee.

V. The risk of a successful lawsuit or significant consequences against the Natick School Committee for its continued us of the "Redmen" [name] with or without the Logo of the head of a Native American is LOW.

5/7/08 - The much anticipated special School Committee hearing was held in the Wilson School auditorium. Hundreds of Redmen supporters attended the hearing and were able to contribute their Pro-Redmen opinions during several hours of public speak. The opposition brought in several Native Americans who made impassioned pleads insisting that the name Redmen is racist and hurtful, and that Natick must relinquish both the Redmen name and the mascot logo.  We made a formal presentation on behalf of the Redmen Forever Committee. His presentation concluded that the name Redmen is not racist and should be restored to Natick's sports teams. This can be done by the School Committee simply defining the word "Redmen" to mean a positive reference towards Natick's Native American founders and as a term meaning pride, honor, dignity, strength and greatness. The Redmen Committee suggested that there is room for compromise involving Natick's Indian logo. The logo appearance has changed many times over the decades so it is fitting that a more appropriate and respectful logo be created which accurately represents Natick's founding Indian population. The new logo could be designed through a contest involving Natick students and residents.

4/28/08 - Several members of our committee attended the School Committee (SC) Meeting on April 28th. We addressed the SC during public speak to assure them that no one from the Redmen Forever Committee has ever made threats of any kind to SC members. We condemned any such threats and asked the SC to inform our committee of any further incidents so that we can help find the guilty parties. It is suspected that the threats are actually coming from the opposition to try to discredit our committee.

4/8/08 - The SC continued to discuss the motion originally made by Rick Winn, which passed unanimously at their March 31st meeting, which was to re-evaluate the SC's previous decision to scrap the Redmen name. The motion is multi-fold including (1) placing in abeyance (halting) the current scheme to find a new name, (2) hiring an outside independent lawyer to research case law, and (3) holding an Open Public Meeting conducted by an independent moderator in May or June 2008 to seek more public input. Karen Foster amended the motion to (4) seek written comments from local Indian groups regarding their current opinion on the name change matter.

Our representatives spoke at the SC meeting to express our concern that the SC appears to be making what should be a fairly simple matter even more confusing than it already is. We reemphasize that the vast majority of Natick residents, as evident by the 2/3rds majority vote on March 25th, want to retain the name Redmen. We remain "cautiously optimistic" that the SC will perform their re-evaluation in good faith and listen to the residents' wishes in the end.