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Taconic High School rebrands as Taconic Thunder

Student baseball uniform with Braves logo at Taconic High School in 2018.

Taconic High School in Pittsfield is the latest western Massachusetts school to retire its mascot referencing Native American culture.

Students and school officials voted on Taconic Thunder as the new logo retiring the former Braves mascot.

Pittsfield school committee chair Dr. William Cameron said many alumni expressed opposition to the change.

"I think if some group of people feel disrespected by what we were doing with a term that is pretty much universally associated with Native Americans, if people were offended by that, we should stop using it," Cameron said.

This change comes after school officials deliberated for months with three rounds of public surveys on the symbol that best represents their school.

The school committee will vote on the new logo on March 23.

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Nirvani Williams covers socioeconomic disparities for New England Public Media, joining the news team in June 2021 through Report for America.