001[Music] so [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] no [Music] hello [Music] so [Music] no no no no [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] my [Music] good morning everyone my name is sebastian mata and i'm the student ambassador here at anaheim high school before we officially begin please stand for the pledge of allegiance place your right hand over your heart ready begin i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands one nation under god indivisible with liberty and justice for all you may be seated thank you at this time it is my honor to introduce dr jared freed the assistant superintendent of education for the anaheim union high school district [Applause] thank you sebastian good morning anaheim high school students faculty staff and community welcome
002to anaheim high school's town hall meeting which will showcase the robust civic engagement education all of our students were able to experience the past couple of weeks i would like to start by thanking all of you for your efforts and hard work throughout this process as well as thanking our board of trustees for their support as we embarked on the civic inquiry journey but i like to acknowledge trustee al-jabbar who is here with us this morning thank you for being here i would also like to especially thank and acknowledge the great work of the anaheim high school teachers who have masterfully led our students through this process with integrity i would also like to specifically thank miss michelle majewski for her leadership in supporting and coordinating these efforts with our teachers here at anaheim so
003thank you [Music] as many of you know we have received many community inquiries asking for the removal or keeping of the colonist's name and mascot as a school district we felt this was a great opportunity for students to partake in a civic engagement project that is relevant to them and unleashes their student voice here at the anaheim union high school district student voice and civic engagement are important key drivers that allow us to prepare our students to become life ready this project is a testament to those drivers and beliefs we cannot be more proud of our students and faculty as they navigated through this process which we will outline shortly what i along with our superintendent mr michael matsuda are most proud of is how our students have demonstrated tremendous civility towards one another while
004engaging within our civic and democratic process students at anaheim please know that you are a model for our country and how to actively engage in civil discourse my hope is that our students leave this experience empowered as both students and citizens to build a better world through unlimited you now to review this process please give a warm welcome to brandy hoxworth anaheim high school asb president thank you dr fred for all the support throughout this process welcome everyone i would like to start off by introducing myself my name is brandi hawksworth and i am anime high school's asb president throughout the past week all the students at anaheim high school went through a five-day lesson focused on the essential question should anaheim high school keep rebrand or replace its mascot with this essential question as
005a guide students embarked on a civic learning process that engaged and unleashed our student voice the five-day lessons focus on a variety of key elements on day one students went through a lesson introduction and awareness as to why we are going through this process day two focus on the analysis of primary documents as we read we were asked to annotate and discuss these primary documents on day three we were asked to conduct an image analysis of our mascot throughout the years and conduct our own research on this topic day four focused on the civic dialogue allowing students to discuss their positions with each other in a structured and civil manner last but not least on day five students were asked to write a letter or record a public service announcement to the board of trustees
006explaining their position on the essential question should anaheim high school keep rebrand or replace its mascot on november 9th students at anaheim high school shared their response to the essential questions by casting a vote to keep rebrand or to replace its mascot this day comes with great significance during our lesson we learned that the students of anaheim high school also voted to determine the name of their mascot exactly 100 years ago on november 9 1921. it was important for anaheim high school to provide an opportunity for student voice 100 years ago and that still holds true today to illustrate the discussions that were occurring in classrooms last week we have asked three students to share their positions during this town hall please join me in welcoming daniel escobar brianna garola and anaii rico who will
007each speak on their position to keep rebrand or to replace the anaheim high school colonist mascot our first speaker daniel escobar will speak on his position to keep the anime colonists mascot and its images thank you [Applause] good morning my name is eddie escobar i am a junior here at high school and i am here to present the argument in favor of keeping the name and image of our current colonists mascot over the past week we were given lessons on the history behind the city and why the name colonists was chosen as our mascot we learned that germans immigrated immigrants wanted to establish a colony in southern california to grow grapes in modern day anaheim ended up being the place they settled and founded if you are from a pueblo you are often quali pueblano
008if you are from an island you are called an islander if you are from mexico you are called a mexican if you are from america you are called an american so because anaheim was founded as a colony it is appropriate to call us colonists to me being an adam high school colleagues means pride tradition love champions being different and much more some is contemporary are mascot as a colonizer but as we learned last week when we studied anaheim's history our mascot name has nothing to do with those that killed native americans and stole their land being in america colonists means so much to some people that it's just wrong to take that love away the alumni who come every year to what they call home and have pride in calling themselves colonists will lose a
009piece of that connection to our school if we change our mascot in addition many students and programs have worked hard fundraised and spent a lot of money for the members to have clothing and other things that represent them in our school look around campus and you will see all the places and ways colonists name and the image appears if you were to change the mascot all of this will need to be replaced which will cost a lot of money and time in closing i am in favor of keeping the name and the image of our current mascot the colonists i think it is appropriate to our city's history and honors the hard work and dedication of both past present and future students thank you for your time [Music] next brianna garola will speak on her
010position to rebrand the anaheim colonist mascot [Applause] hello my name is brianna grolla and i am a senior today i'm going to share with you my perspective on why i believe we should rebrand and keep the name colonists and change our local i believe rebranding is a good compromise that would allow us to keep the name colonists yet create a new logo for nim high school that would better represent our history it is important to understand where the name colonists come from during the project last week we learned the colonist mascot is a reference to the mother colony and the early settlers that founded the city of anaheim and sought and slot to start a wine con colony our colonists mascot does not represent the same colonists who killed native native people and stole their
011land however the current colonist imagery does not look anything like the colonists that settled anaheim instead the images used throughout our school's history look like the pilgrims or american colonists that founded the united states this has led to confusion about the real history behind our mascot this is why i am arguing in favor of the rebranding of our mascot by removing the weapon from our logo and bringing it more in line with our city's history we will show the true meaning of a colonist being a colonist means being part of a community working together that's what i meant when it was chosen in 1921 and that's what it still means today we students represent a colony a colony that works together in an effort to strive towards the same goal of succeeding whether it be
012through class sports or clubs if we decide to replace our name and logo we will have to choose a new mascot to represent anaheim high school how will we know that in 100 years they won't have a petition to change the mascot again the name colonists is appropriate to our school but our logo is misleading this is why i'm here today to persuade you not to take away the hundred years of history instead we should keep the name colonists and change our logo to something that truly represents our history thank you [Music] next anaii rico will speak on her position to replace the anaheim colonist mascot [Applause] my name is anaya rico and i'm a junior here at anaheim high school yesterday marks a very important date for the anaheim high school community yesterday was
013100 years since the choosing of our mascot the colonists which has had a huge impact on our community both good and bad being an anaheim colonist means a lot to our community it means someone who has a positive outlook someone who is kind respectful honest and so much more that being said our mascot is everything but that colonists have been glorified since the beginning of time causing people to look up to them when they in fact have not been any sort of role model i believe that we should replace our mascot and the term colonists some may argue that erasing the mascot from our history is something that we shouldn't be doing and that we've had this mascot for 100 years so why change it now but we as a society have changed we have
014come to learn about the genocide and eradication of innocent families when i think of the word colonists i don't think of kind respectful students i think of mass genocide murder the separation of families the attempt to whitewash and eradicate native american civilization and then attempt to hide the truth about what really happened to those that once inhabited this land those who say we shouldn't dwell on the past are wrong to say this because those who were killed and murdered by colonists were people like us and we can't let their voices be unheard once again many may argue that the original anaheim colonists after which our school was named had done nothing wrong that we were only named the colonists because of the colony that they had peacefully settled and that the definition of a colonist
015is a settler in or inhabitant of a colony but that definition is no longer is no longer valid when you take everything from history into account when you think of just the word colonist one word that doesn't come out of my mouth is peace considering that 97 of our school's population are people of color our mascot doesn't represent us as a community and that's what the purpose of a mascot is being a colonist is no longer having school spirit it's a glorification of something that's not right that being said we are not erasing past alumni's history of the mascot we are changing it for the better for the future generations to come and for those who were never stood up for in past history i understand those who take pride in being a part of
016our school i take great pride in being a part of anaheim high school and that's why i want us to change everything that has to do with us being a colonist 100 years has been enough and in order for that to change it starts with us we are the face of change thank you [Applause] these three voices from anaheim high school students have highlighted their voice and passion for their school through the sipping engagement lessons from the past week thank you daniel brianna and annae i will now present the results from the student vote on tuesday november 9th nearly 2 400 students voted and the results are to keep the name colonists and keep the images 41.2 percent rebrand keep the name colonists but change the image 33.7 percent replace remove the name colonists and
017images 25.1 percent this information will be presented to the board of trustees during the december school board meeting as a recommendation from the student body at anaheim high school thank you everyone and i'd like to invite assistant principal ruben galleros to give closing remarks thank you [Music] thank you brandi good morning my name is ruben calleros i am one of the assistant principals here at anaheim high school who had the privilege of overseeing the civic engagement process in closing i would like to start by thanking the board of trustees executive cabinet anaheim staff including the lesson committee led by michelle majewski the anaheim community but most importantly our students today we shared with the community the results of a student vote these results will be presented to the anaheim high school district board of trustees
018during the december board meeting as a recommendation from the anaheim high school student body as part of our democracy public schools are represented by a school board who are elected by community members in honor of this democratic process the students at anaheim high school voiced their opinions through a school-wide vote and sent individual student letters representing multiple perspectives to the board of trustees ultimately the board of the board of trustees will decide whether or not to take action with these recommendations in mind as for anaheim high school i am proud to share that during this process we have valued the civic engagement and dialogue that we have experienced as a school for this reason we are committed to continuing to raise awareness every year and ensure that all students of anaheim high school will explore
019the history of our school and local community including the history of indigenous populations that inhabited the land prior to the mexican-american war long before the students of anaheim high school voted for their mascot 100 years ago diving deep into the history of the past will help us our students better navigate the present and grapple with the dynamic complex and nuanced society we live in the discussion students engaged in the past week should and will be ongoing discussions that we will continue to experience throughout our campus year after year regardless of what the board of trustees decides to do with our namesake and mascot we feel it is important to make this commitment to our students and continue to value their voices and empower them to influence the future thank you again and have a great
020day [Applause] [Music] you