LETTER: Clark County School Board must monitor school mascots

According to your Feb. 26 article, the Legislature has tasked the Clark County School District with ensuring that schools be prohibited “from using mascots or other identifiers that are racially discriminatory.”

My problem is the school board and district officials have better things to do. For years, the district (guided by the board) has performed at or near the bottom of national education rankings. The board itself is borderline dysfunctional and oftentimes a laughingstock. One has to look only at the 2021 fiasco when the board fired Superintendent Jesus Jara only to rehire him weeks later because one of the trustees changed her mind.

As if the above weren’t enough, crime is running rampant in our schools. Almost weekly, we read where a student is caught with a gun or uses it. Drug use is up. Last month, there was an overdose in a school that resulted in the death of a student. There has been a teacher shortage for years and absenteeism is on the rise, according to reports.

The trustees have a number of major problems to address. They don’t need to be burdened with changing the names of schools or mascots that will undoubtedly offend folks on both sides of the issue. Let somebody else do it.

In my opinion, changing the name of a school or mascot will have no bearing on graduation rates, dropout rates, grade point averages, crime and drug problems or other educational-related matters — all of which should be board priorities.