The Washington Redskins, Cleveland Indians and Chicago Blackhawks are just a few of the teams that have come under fire for cultural appropriation south of the border. A Brampton teacher is now leading the charge to try to get rid of racist stereotypes among sports teams closer to home.

Debbie White, who has family ties to Magnetawan First Nation, Henvey Inlet First Nation and Manitoulin Island, said she wants cultural appropriation to stop being promoted in schools through sports team names, logos and mascots, calling it disrespectful.

The resource teacher, who helps students in kindergarten through Grade 5 in the Peel District School Board, is putting forth a motion Wednesday at the Elementary Teachers’ Federation of Ontario annual meeting in Toronto. She hopes to get teachers from across the province on board.

“The more that we are vocal and speak out and lobby school boards to address that issue… then that mushrooms out to the community teams. So if it’s in the newspaper that Peel’s changing their (team) names, the community teams are going to start to look at that, and then perhaps in a larger picture, the national teams,” said White.

White’s motion urges ETFO to “lobby all district school boards to stop promoting stereotypical representation of aboriginal people including team names and mascots.” It’s one of 147 motions on the docket and she hopes it makes it to the floor, despite the packed schedule for the four-day conference.

Two schools from her district — Port Credit Secondary School in Mississauga and Chinguacousy Secondary School in Brampton — recently promised changes to their sports teams’ names and logos, after an indigenous advisory committee deemed them disrespectful.

Chinguacousy finalized changes to their team name and logo last week. The team formerly known as the Chiefs is now going by the Timberwolves. The maximum cost of their re-branding effort — which included getting a new logo, jerseys and sports tents for games — was $20,000, said Brian Woodland, a spokesman for the school board.

Port Credit is keeping its team name, the Warriors, but changing its logo — which was similar to the Chicago Blackhawks’ logo — and removing feathers painted on the gym floor. The advisory committee said they were fine with the Warriors’ name, but didn’t approve of the name being paired with designs that included sacred aboriginal symbols, Woodland said.

Using symbols like headdresses and feathers out of context is troubling, said White.

“It’s about the context and it’s also about (the fact) that it’s not related to the team itself,” she explained. “If I were to look at First Nation teams … they have names that would be considered stereotypical, but it’s relevant or in context to who they are.”

Concerned parent, Brad Gallant, launched a human rights complaint against the City of Mississauga in the spring, over their financial support of sports teams with names and logos he deemed offensive to indigenous people.

There were five teams cited by Gallant: the Mississauga Braves, Mississauga Chiefs, Lorne Park Ojibwa, Meadowvale Mohawks and Mississauga Reps. The Lorne Park Ojibwa have since changed their name to the Lorne Park Wild. Gallant’s case is set to be heard in November.

Gallant, who is Mi’kmaq, welcomed White’s motion to stop schools from promoting racist stereotypes, but he doesn’t think lobbying should be necessary — schools should know to stop appropriating, he said.

“This motion is great, welcome, and a step forward, but … it seeks a lesser standard than prescribed by the law,” Gallant said in an email.

“All students are entitled to a harassment free environment in schools,” he added. “This means that no native mascot paraphernalia should be permitted in schools in any instance. (Discouragement) is not enough. Ending promotion of native mascots is not enough.”

Renu Mandhane, chief commissioner of the Ontario Human Rights Commission, said she’s been working closely on Gallant’s case and consulting with many indigenous leaders and groups about their opinions on mascots and team names.

She doesn’t think schools ought to wait for a court decision to sway team name changes.

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“I would always encourage school boards and other people to proactively address this issue. I think there are other sports teams that have quietly and quickly changed their mascots and not waited for a human rights tribunal decision to do that,” Mandhane said.

“This is really a public education issue. I think the indigenous mascots and imagery in team names have become so normalized in our culture that I don’t think people actually realize the discriminatory impacts.”