This poltergeist is getting another makeover.
Randolph Union High School, home of the Galloping Ghosts, has erased a mural of its mascot over concerns that the hooded figure on horseback looked like a Ku Klux Klansman. Debate over the controversial image has ebbed and flowed in the decade since it first went up, but it gained new urgency after students raised a Black Lives Matter flag on campus last year, Orange Southwest School District superintendent Layne Millington said.
While some alumni argued for keeping the mural, Millington said he made a unilateral decision to erase the controversial image, which appeared on the gym wall and on some clocks in the school. Workers painted over the mural on Sunday and are replacing the clocks, Millington said.
“There was an image in the gym prior to that which was actually a little worse, because the mascot had a point on his sheet,” said Millington, who’s been on the job two and a half years. “So [the recently erased image] was the attempt to kind of replace that one.”
There aren’t plans yet to create a new mural but any future use of the mascot will depict a Grim Reaper astride a horse, the image the school used until the 1980s, Millington said.
The Galloping Ghost nickname dates back to the 1940s, when opponents only saw flashes of white — the team jersey color — as quick and agile basketball players flitted around the court, Millington said.
He broke the news of the mural change in an email to the school community last week.
Millington expected a mixed reaction to his decision, which he made on his own as a way to avoid a divisive and protracted community debate, like the one that recently roiled South Burlington when it dropped the Rebels moniker. But the Randolph school superintendent received about 100 emails in the days following, and they were all positive.
“People are kind of happy at this point to just get it out of the way and move on,” Millington said.
The original print version of this article was headlined “Give Up the Ghost”
This article appears in Feb 26 – Mar 3, 2020.
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I respectfully request a retraction of this article – the title must be changed. The Randolph Union High School mascot was NEVER a depiction of anything related to the KKK as the title suggests. That is disrespectful to the artist of the mural painting, to the students and alumni of RUHS, and to the entire Randolph community. That title is a bogus misrepresentation of the facts.
I see yet another media outlet is attempting to cause a race war. RUHS NEVER made a mascot with the idea of a klans man. This is all just being caused by someone who wanted to cause trouble. Shame on you sevendaysvt for race baiting.
Please kkk, why is it such an issue now??? You would think they would of changed it back in the 50’s and 60’s,
Calling it the KKK Mascot in the title is truly irresponsible journalism and I too demand a retraction and and apology to the communities the ate served by RUHS. It has always been a ghost on horseback! It is articles like this that make people look for something else, almost like saying if you squint, you can see what I see. Seeing it eyes wide open and knowing we are the Galloping Ghost, you will always see a ghost on horseback. But those that benefit from stirring up something need to PLANT another (horrible) image in othet’s mind. Shame on you Seven Days. Your words hurt a community today.
Hi, all: We appreciate the feedback that people have expressed here. We’ve changed this story’s headline to more accurately reflect the content.
Thank you for hearing us and respecting our comments. However, the title is still not accurate and is misleading. RUHS has not “given up the Ghost” – only the most recent artist’s rendition as it appeared on the gymnasium wall. The mascot for Randolph Union High School remains the Galloping Ghost.
You have not changed the headline to anything less misleading,in fact, worse.
Respect for District Superintendent Layne Millington. Wish Burlington mayor Weinberger had the same decency and courage.
In 2012, the newly elected mayor became aware of the parade mural being painted on panels to install along Leahy Alley, and he wanted to get into the parade. Artist objected, outside the history timeline he said. But he was a commissioned artist and according to testimony of his assistant, installation of the mural was delayed 2 months to add the new mayor’s family.
The story of the mural’s racism is captured in a 9 page letter from the artist which Seven Days printed in full. It reveals the world according to white supremacists as artist explains why the mural depicts only white notables of Vermont history, 1609-2011. Abenaki aren’t recognized in Vermont, he says, so the mural depicts a Huron from Quebec posed as the humble servant of ‘Sam the Sham’ Champlain. The colonist, racist narrative of the mural is unworthy of a progressive, multicultural city.
https://www.sevendaysvt.com/vermont/discus…
https://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/natio…
Two years ago, the school principal projected an image of a klansman over the painting on the gym wall during an all-school assembly on the first day of school and told the children, staff and anyone listening that it looked like a representation of the KKK. It was an irresponsible and, frankly, shocking thing to do. He went on to share the mascot’s true history, but his mic cut out, kids didn’t hear it, and the damage was done. Since, more assemblies and discussions have been forced on the kids as part of so-called social justice education and the principal has continued his efforts to effectively call our kids racist when their reality is quite different. It is, or has become, a very accepting culture. Recently a group of mostly new teachers, who have heard this administration led message for two years now, wrote a letter to the superintendent asking that the mascot be changed. Alumni, other staff and the community at large has mostly disagreed and comments on articles about the superintendent’s decision outside our region and state by people seeing the painting for the first time, have been, basically, what?! That does not look like the KKK. It doesn’t because it is not, and it was a really gorgeous piece of art. But those strangers didn’t have the disadvantage of an authority figure projecting a disturbing image over a symbol of school pride and working hard to make it into something ugly and hateful. The community is grateful that the new superintendent did not “give up the Ghost.” Many of us are upset over the loss of the painting and the planned replacement, but more so that our kids and community have been subjected to two years of divisive and painful leadership while our academics suffer.