By BRIDGETTE FOX
Capitol News Illinois
bfox@capitolnewsillinois.com
SPRINGFIELD — The House passed a bill Tuesday that would ban public schools from using mascots that discriminate against people with disabilities.
The bill, if signed into law, currently would affect just one high school in St. Clair County.
Freeburg Community High School’s mascot, the “Midgets,” is considered a slur used against people with dwarfism.
The school’s administration did not reply to a request for comment.
Under House Bill 3527, the school could continue using “uniforms or other materials” it bought before the bill was passed until Sept. 1, 2028, as long as it already picked a new mascot, according to the bill’s language. The bill doesn’t clarify what repercussions, if any, the school would face if it didn’t change its mascot.
The bill passed through the House on Tuesday with a vote of 71-38.
The mascot was chosen during the 1930s when a reporter coined the term because the tallest member of the basketball team was just 5 feet, 10 inches tall, according to the school’s website.
The bill’s main sponsor, Rep. Maurice West, D-Rockford, said the name was chosen during a time when freak shows, the exhibitions of human “abnormalities,” were popular.
School alumni, members of the Freeburg community, along with activists and organizations, filed almost 1,000 “witness slips” to the General Assembly for and against the bill.
Opponents said the school’s mascot is a tradition, and there aren’t any students with dwarfism in the school who might be affected by the mascot.
However, Shelby Holloway, a woman with dwarfism and a national advocate and co-director of Mascots Matter, said students at Freeburg aren’t the only ones affected by its mascot.
“This is a statewide issue, and it deserves a statewide solution,” said Holloway during a March 20 committee meeting. “The Freeburg mascot does not just affect the students who attend that school. Every time a Freeburg sports team travels, its mascot’s name is displayed in the schools across Illinois.”
Rep. Kevin Schmidt, R-Millstadt, represents Freeburg and argued against the bill Tuesday on the House floor.
“This is a local issue. The local school board should be voting on it, not the state overreaching and saying, ‘You’re wrong,’” Schmidt said. “You don’t understand the community, you don’t understand the history. It’s our culture.”
Schmidt and other opponents said the school board should be in charge of changing the mascot name, and the General Assembly is infringing on other governing bodies.
“I think this would certainly be obvious that it would be a slam down yes vote for everyone because it is important that we respect people with disabilities,” said Rep. Amy Elik, R-Godfrey, during the committee meeting. “But the fact that it is geared towards one community in Illinois from advocates outside of Illinois makes this really uncomfortable for all of us, I think.”
The bill still has to go through the Senate.
Capitol News Illinois is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news service that distributes state government coverage to hundreds of news outlets statewide. It is funded primarily by the Illinois Press Foundation and the Robert R. McCormick Foundation.
