Alumni raise concerns after school's display found to be out of compliance

In Jefferson County, Colorado history is colliding with compliance.

While Arvada High School changed its mascot long before a 2021 Colorado law banned the use of American Indian mascots, a state commission says the historical display inside the school now violates that law.

The school and school district have until October to remove dozens of prohibited items, prompting concern from some alumni like Terri Binder about their own history with the school.

Binder graduated from Arvada High School in 1964.

"Really a good class of kids. We still get together. We've had reunions every five years," she said.

Steve Urban is an Arvada native and former alumnus as well.

"I'm proud to say I graduated from Arvada High School in 1972," Urban said.

At that time, the school mascot was the "Redskins," and it had been for decades.

In 1993, years before a state law banned the use of American Indian mascots, it was changed to the Arvada Bulldogs.

The old mascot was removed from use but not forgotten.

"This museum is not about the mascot; this is about a museum of history," Binder said.

The museum sits in the high school's front lobby.

Across several display cases, you'll find pieces of the past including a brick from the first building and the doors from another.

There are also yearbooks, team photos, trophies, and other memorabilia.

"I just remember my son coming home one day saying, 'dad, they want to take my letter jacket and put it in the museum,'" Urban said.

But with that spotlight on student success comes a dark shadow of that former mascot.

Many of those items still carry the former name and image, which is the reason why state officials have approved an overhaul of the museum.

"All in favor of adding this school to the list of schools of noncompliance," Lt. Gov. Dianne Primavera said at the Colorado Commission of Indian Affairs meeting last fall.

It was decided then that several items in the Arvada display fall under the "prohibited use" of an American Indian mascot, which can be found in SB21-116.

When we asked for a commissioner to explain the decision and its application to the historical items of the school, they directed us to a recording of the meeting.

"It's all about educating and trying to get schools to understand the law that was passed on the legislative side so that they truly understand the history of where we came from," Chairman Manuel Heart of the Ute Mountain Ute tribe said during the meeting.

Another commissioner, Rachel Bryan-Auker with Colorado's Department of Health and Environment, added, "It looks to me like the display of a historically prohibited mascot, as well as the repeated use of the name on their website's history section, does appear to be out of compliance with the law. I think, moreover, the spirit of the law," she said.

Ultimately, they voted unanimously to declare the school and the district out of compliance and on notice.

"We were notified in October; the law specifically prohibits the use of Native American imagery mascots in public education settings," Jason Firestone said.

Firestone is the assistant director of student engagement in the Family Community Partnerships Division for Jefferson County School District.

He says they were notified that prohibited items must be removed by October, one year after being placed on the noncompliance list, or the district can be fined $25,000 every month until they are.

District officials say more than one hundred pieces will be removed from that museum by the end of summer.

"We have involved current students at Arvada High School to hear their perspective, to hear their ideas, and thoughts. We also involved our Indigenous Student Council," he said.

Rather than erase that part of the school's past, these alumni believe it could be a teachable moment.

"A placard of some kind on those controversial images that describes the history of that and why it's there, okay to describe what has taken place a placard describing it versus it just being in there," Urban suggested.

Binder and Urban say they only learned of the changes by accident in March and are now questioning why more of the community wasn't involved from the beginning.

"This is history, it is not for us to dislike or like, it's for us to learn by," Urban added.

A school district spokesperson says they will put the removed items in storage and are now working to contact former students to form an alumni committee by next month.

That committee will be tasked with what happens to those items going forward.