Washington’s elite Sidwell Friends School has banned clothing featuring the name and logo of the Washington Redskins football team, school officials said Friday.
“This spring, students proposed to make the wearing of clothing with the name and logo of the Washington National Football League team a violation of the school’s dress code,” Turner told The Washington Post. “The school administration accepted the proposal in a show of support for student voice and unity on the issue.”
Dictionary entries for “Redskin” generally define the word as a derogatory term for Native Americans. President Obama, whose eldest daughter, Malia, graduated from Sidwell this month, is one of a number of high-profile politicians and sports celebrities who have called on franchise owner Dan Snyder to reconsider the team’s moniker.
But a decades-long effort by activists urging the football team to change its name has proven fruitless. A recent poll by The Washington Post found that 9 out of 10 Native Americans do not find the word to be offensive.
Turner said that the ban on Redskins apparel at Sidwell will begin in the fall. Turner said the dress code policy change is a recent example of action that germinated from “the expression of student opinions and concerns to the school administration.”
Turner noted that the students said it was a moral decision to change the dress code and that they “expressed concerns that the wearing of the name and logo was inconsistent with the values and beliefs of the Religious Society of Friends.”