pMASSENA — Massena Central School Superintendent Patrick A. Brady said a recent incident involving a member of the boys’ varsity hockey team gave the school an opportunity to bring discussions about cultural sensitivity to the forefront./ppThe player was disciplined after he allegedly made a racial comment before the team’s recent game against Salmon River Central School, and the incident sparked sometimes heated debates on social media./pp“I wish to address our community regarding an incident at a recent Massena hockey game, which has sparked a heated conversation online. When speaking to his teammates, a member of our boys’ varsity hockey team used an offensive, racially charged term in reference to their opponents, Salmon River Central School. The district has taken disciplinary action in response to the incident, the details of which we are not permitted to discuss publicly,” Mr. Brady said in a posting on the district’s website./pp“This student made a mistake, which we believe provides the opportunity for a teachable moment,” he wrote. “Our mission is to educate students both academically and socially in order to mold them into productive members of their community. This includes creating an attitude of understanding and acceptance of societal differences so that incidents like these do not occur in the future.”/ppMr. Brady said Thursday that Massena Central strives to promote diversity in the district and community./pp“Massena has always been proud of its cultural heritage, and we’re proud of it now. We work continuously to promote an understanding and acceptance of the diversity in our community. This year, for the first time in a long time, all of our staff had professional development on cultural sensitivity, where we partnered with the leaders of the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe to do the training,” Mr. Brady said./ppThey also plan to partner with the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe to provide cultural sensitivity training for the district’s varsity sports teams, he said./ppMr. Brady said he has also reached out to Salmon River Central School Superintendent Stanley Harper to apologize and discuss how they could collaborate on efforts to foster an environment of cultural sensitivity./pp“He understands that we are dealing with young people. There are going to be mistakes made from time to time. We need to take an appropriate measured approach based on the individual facts,” he said./ppThe incident gave the district an opportunity to make it a teachable moment, according to the superintendent./pp“We had an opportunity to teach students about cultural sensitivity. We’re a school of 3,000 young people who are still learning and testing their boundaries, and at times there will be issues. We need to keep this in mind when we make decisions about how to handle these situations,” Mr. Brady said./ppIf an incident arises, it needs to be addressed, he said./pp“We have thousands of students and their families, and there will be issues from time to time. We need to deal with the issues openly and honestly to promote understanding. That’s what our goal is. That’s what we’re trying to do,” Mr. Brady said. “We have to honor our cultural differences. We celebrate Native American Day every year, and we’re proud to have the many symbols that we do of our Mohawk students and their families and community within our school.”/ppThe hockey incident was the subject of conversation on social media, as was a separate conversation concerning efforts to remove the Red Raiders nickname from the school. A petition titled “Change the Mascot Name at Massena Central High School” had been started at change.org, and had more than 250 supporters as of mid-afternoon Thursday. That led to a separate petition, “Keep The Name Red Raiders,” which had more than 170 supporters as of mid-afternoon Thursday./ppBut, Mr. Brady said, there are no plans to change the school’s nickname./pp“I think as a result there’s been some chatter going on in social media. My understanding is this issue does come up from time to time. At one point a number of years ago, the Indian head was removed as a symbol and replaced with ‘M.’ There’s a great deal of different opinions among all groups about it. It’s part of the school’s history,” he said./p
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