Vermont Superior Court Judge Robert Mello cleared the way for a lawsuit on the question to go to trial, and he denied the school district’s motion to dismiss the case. Members of a group called the Rebel Alliance raised funds for the lawsuit.
The 19-page ruling, issued Tuesday, generally supported the residents’ argument that the school board violated the Vermont constitution by refusing to put the name question on the ballot after at least 5 percent of city voters signed a petition calling for a public vote.
The ruling suggested that the school board could be ordered to put the question on the ballot.
“If the facts relied upon by the Plaintiffs turn out to be true, then Plaintiffs would be entitled to an order in the nature of a writ of mandamus compelling the South Burlington School District to put Plaintiff’s ballot question to a vote by the electorate,” Mello wrote. “The District’s duty to put Plaintiff’s ballot question to such a vote is imposed by the Constitution and is certain, clear, and non-discretionary. “
The school board voted in February to change the name after critics said it had racist overtones involving the Confederacy. Defenders of the nickname said it was a harmless tradition that dated back to South Burlington’s rivalry with Burlington, slightly to the north, and had nothing to do with the Civil War. Whatever the origin, at times in the school’s history students waved Confederate flags and played “Dixie” at football games.
A few months after the vote to drop the name, the school district adopted a new mascot, the Wolves. Student athletes have been playing under that name since September.
The ballot question would be advisory. It asks if all South Burlington sports teams should be known as the South Burlington Rebels and if the school board should be required to retain the name. However, even if the majority of voters say yes, the school board would not be legally obligated to obey, district lawyers argue.
District attorney Pietro Lynn had argued that since the question is advisory, the argument to put it on the ballot is weak. He also cited case law in which the courts upheld the city’s right to reject an abortion-related ballot petition years ago on the grounds that elected city officials had no jurisdiction over the question.
But Mello wrote that the abortion case was not parallel, and that the Rebels question directly relates to the school board’s responsibilities. Read the full decision here:
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If the reporter had read the order (or papers previously filed in the case), she would have learned and she had not known already, and could have reported, that the plaintiffs have alleged that the board made a decision based on the superintendent’s nonpublic recommendation, that the board made the decision without making public the results of its own survey showing that students overwhelmingly supported the name Rebels, and that the superintendent acknowledged that he and the board deliberately did not publicize the boards intention to eliminate the name? An enterprising, even an ordinary, reporter could easily verify these facts, or at least ask the superintendent and board members about them.
The reporter also neglected to convey that UVM emeritus professor Frank Bryan, a well-known local luminary, wrote of the board’s decision that there is no state in the Union where the term rebel has a more generic and positive meaning than it has in Vermont and that the board got it horribly wrong. Worse, it smells like grandstanding. See us! Were fighting racism!
Also, readers may want to know what evidence there is of the alleged Confederate flag/Dixie incidents and when these incidents are claimed to have occurred. Was it five years ago, or 35 or more years ago? And if those incidents occurred, why did they stop?
Curious readers are waiting?
I am so disgusted by all of this rhetoric. We do not get to decide that because we live in VT that the word Rebels does not have racist connotations and meaning. Intent is not the only thing that matters here, IMACT MATTERS. Its like calling someone a racial slur and then saying that you intended it to mean something else aside from the commonly known meaning to justify your use. White Vermonters who think we are past racism in VT…News flash white people have no say in whether we are or not and white people have no say in how communities of color understand the communities use of the word rebels. When we push for votes in things like this, and Majority rules etc. we support keeping the status quo and continue to oppress community members who do not have a majority population and reminde them ever so loudly that their emotional safety while attending Their high school does not matter. The fact that alumni want to do that tomcurrent students is beyond me, community members are adults and adults should be for protecting all community youth! Im ashamed of the adults involved in this lawsuit and the Rebel Alliance for putting their own wishes above the emotional safety of SB students of color!
South Burlington – it is time to move on from the past to the future. You have wasted about a year fighting to maintain a name based on the loosing side of the civil war which was fought to preserve slavery. Might i remind you – the South LOST and Vermont fought on the side of the North. The only battle of the Civil War in Vermont was a pathetic botched bank robbery. ….And we are wanting to memorialize this history ?
Lets put racism and white supremacy in the past and purge it from our present.
Dear South Burlington residents who wish to go back to the Rebels mascot,
Whether you mean it this way or not, the term IS associated with the confederacy and with the confederate flag. The rebel or confederate flag symbolizes the terrible idea that Black people are less than human and deserve to be tortured and enslaved. Do you really want your school and its sports teams associated with the absolute worst aspects of our American history?
What truly makes this country great? Looking at our history, and our present, with clear eyes and caring hearts. Having the courage to admit when we are wrong, and the resolve to do better, today and tomorrow.
Sincerely,
Someone committed to ending White Nonsense
I’m going to echo what others have said. The name “rebels” and mascot is racist. If you are confused about this, please use Google. Or you could ask one of the very knowledgeable social studies teachers in South Burlington. The name is linked to the Confederacy and keeping the name would be doing harm to PoC in your community and all over America. The racism needs to end. I understand that change is hard, but keeping the mascot and name is the cowardly thing to do. If you want to be a role model, make change happen and show how brave you are by embracing humanism and social justice.
There is no compelling reason to keep any name that bears abusive connotations. Given that in our lifetimes black people have been marginalized, murdered, denied housing, denied employment, denied basic human rights, it doesn’t seem like a huge ask to not have names used to glorify those who fought to enslave black people.
This world almost succeeded in wiping out an entire race, and there are no nazi flags waving in any of our schools. I wish I could say the same for the confederate flag. I wish I could say there are no nazi or confederate flags flying in any government building in America.
Sadly, today there are still tens of millions of Americans who worship these symbols of hate and want to eliminate non-whites and non-christians, so the rest of us need to step up. Step up to make clear symbols of hate and intolerance are unacceptable in our government and public spaces.
Why is this even controversial? Rebel has many meanings, so does nazi, so does confederate. Let’s give the benefit of the doubt to not continuing to traumatize those who have been terrorized by earlier generations of Americans. I hope we’re better than that, Vermont stands for better than that.
1.
a person who refuses allegiance to, resists, or rises in arms against the government or ruler of his or her country.
2.
a person who resists any authority, control, or tradition.
Given that the name “Rebel” is so easily open to being misconstrued, and that so much of the rhetoric of the past year shows that defenders of the term are construing it in exactly the most negative way and being amplified by students in some cases, exacerbating tensions in the school, is it maybe time to honor the school’s decision and move on? There are a lot of other names with historical relevance to Vermont’s tradition of independence that could be chosen.
Any grown adult that is this upset over the name change of their “High School” should seek out help from a qualified mental health professional.This is a total waste of time and resources.So much good have been done with this money! A Lawyers wet dream.
Bravo- fight on
all this political correctness is bull
Where did Frank Bryan write about the Rebels name? As a Starksboro resident, the Rebels name probably isn’t that relevant to him, but it seems a little out of character for him otherwise.
lI agree kawksw. Seven Days has this story as the number 1 story of the day. In the 1800s South Burlington was incorporated after its citizens rebelled against Burlingtons authority. That is where the name came from. End of story. I am happy to say that I don’t live in Burlington. I did go to UVM, but I commuted. My kids went to Randolph Union High School, home of the Galloping Ghosts. They say that there is a movement among the local paranormal investigators to get rid of the name because the word galloping is demeaning to the spirits of dead people, aka ghosts, because it implies that they were animals when they were alive.
Dempsey – what makes you say the name came from the 1800s, when the name was apparently chosen in the 60s and there is photo evidence of people dressing up as Confed soldiers and waiving the Battle Flag of the Army of Northern Virginia? In a Free Press article on the topic, they wrote “In 1961, student Cathryn Towne told the Burlington Free Press that the Rebel was picked over Titans, Rams, Blue Lancers and Blue Panthers because the town was south of Burlington, the school colors were blue and gray and the school opened during the Civil War centennial year.”
That makes clear that the association was always with the ‘rebels’ of the US Civil War, who fought to preserve slavery.
Go Rebels! Too many living in Vermont are out of control with their sanctimonious, over-sensitive PC blathering and yammering. Here is the crux of the matter for me, and why I hope the court does the right thing and orders the school board to put the question on the ballot: “The 19-page ruling, issued Tuesday, generally supported the residents’ argument that the school board violated the Vermont constitution by refusing to put the name question on the ballot after at least 5 percent of city voters signed a petition calling for a public vote.”
Proud of these Rebels and the Rebel Alliance for standing up for South Burlington voters. Regardless of what you think of the Rebel name, the School Board had absolutely no right to attempt to silence the electorate by refusing to allow them to vote on this issue. The judge made it quite clear that this would be a violation of Vermont’s constitution.
If you think that your cause is so righteous that it outweighs the people’s democratic rights to decide what is best for their community, then you should consider living in Venezuela rather than the U.S.
Hey GreenMtnBoy – protip: the school board is elected.
Hey Nate Awrich, pro-tip: Vermont’s constitution doesn’t allow for the legislative body to preclude citizens from petitioning and instructing their representatives. Here’s the cliff notes version. Read it and then go re-read the judge’s decision.
Article 20. [Right to assemble, instruct and petition]
That the people have a right to assemble together to consult for their common good–to instruct their Representatives–and to apply to the Legislature for redress of grievances, by address, petition or remonstrance.
A short look through the Internet to see what people of color think about names like “rebel” makes it clear that it is associated with oppression, slavery, and white supremecy. Get rid of it.
SB residents constitutional rights have been violated. The SB school board while elected acted in an underhanded manner to push this issue after more than a year of stating something completely opposite. For anyone who has followed this; the timeline of events at the SB school board since the name change announcement was made after the deadline to submit petition to run for school board. This goes beyond retention of a name. There is legitimate corruption and deception. Look at how the library move was handled.
For those that think this is all about the name “Rebel”, you are sorely mistaken. This has gone far beyond the changing of a mascot name. What happened in South Burlington was corruption, abuse of power, violation of open meeting laws, and flat out lies told by the administration to the public in front of the school board. (in a public meeting no less). This lawsuit is about the rights of the citizens of South Burlington to have a say in how their tax dollars are spent. The citizens of SB followed every letter of the law when they gathered the names for the petition, and the petition was certified as valid by the City Clerk. The law states that it should have been put to a vote and the School Board decided they are above the law and said “No thank you”, because they were afraid of the outcome of that vote. This lawsuit is about holding the School Board and the administration accountable for their actions and to remind them that they work FOR the citizens of South Burlington, not against them. I hope this lawsuit goes to trial and let it be a warning for others in this state, don’t bite the hand the feeds you!
It’s such a sad argument.
In Vermont, the name “Rebels” evokes the Ethan Allen and the Green Mountain Boys rebelling against the Crown. Give them back the name and add the Green Mountain Boys insignia to their uniforms. That makes a clear statement about what kind of rebels we’re talking about.
Yet if the name sounds and feels racist to students of any race why keep it? Is it really grandstanding to try to eliminate racism, racist team names, racist attitudes from a school district? This is a ridiculous claim. Leave this history behind and get over it. Black students should feel welcome in all vermont schools.