Plans To Return West Hartford High Schools' Nicknames Back Dealt Setback

WEST HARTFORD, CT — A petition to help overturn the school board's controversial decision to change high school nicknames away from native American names has failed, town officials said.

According to West Hartford officials, local resident Scott Zweig filed a petition in the town clerk's office Sept. 9 seeking to send a motion to overturn the vote to referendum.

But, according to West Hartford Town Clerk Essie Labrot Wednesday, there were not enough signatures filed to force a referendum vote to overturn.

The West Hartford Board of Education June 7 voted 5-2 vote along party lines (5 Democrats, 2 Republicans) to change Conard High School's nickname from the Chieftains to the Red Wolves and Hall High School's nickname from the Warriors to the Titans.

The move was amid the ongoing push against such nicknames, evidenced by Cleveland's baseball team going from Indians to Guardians and Washington, D.C.'s football team going from Redskins to Commanders.

West Hartford could have lost $28,000 in tribal funding from the Indian casinos in the state due to a new state law mandating the loss of such funds for schools with Native American nicknames.

This prompted Zweig, an attorney and Hall graduate, to team up with fellow Hall grad Mary (Haggerty) McGowan to sue the school board to keep the old names, citing a conflict with public opinion on the matter, among other issues.

While the lawsuit is still pending in Hartford Superior Court — with the town filing a motion for dismissal in July — the petition was another avenue to overturn the school board's June vote.

According to Labrot on Wednesday, however, West Hartford's charter requires that 7 percent of total electors sign a petition to force a referendum.

She said West Hartford has 40,250 electors, meaning at least 2,812 signatures are needed to successfully force a referendum vote.

Zweig's petition, however, only had 1,714 signatures or 4.26 percent of the total number of electors, far short of the required amount, according to Labrot.

The town clerk noted her office didn't try to verify the signatures because the gross amount submitted was well short of what was needed anyway.

"Such a review is not necessary and would be wasteful of staff time and resources since the gross number of unverified signatories is plainly short of the threshold needed to begin the initiative and referendum process," wrote Labrot to the West Hartford Town Council.

From July 18: 'West Hartford Schools Seek Dismissal Of Nickname Suit'