Mascot Debate Sparks Anti-Racism March In Howell

HOWELL, NJ – A rally against racism garnered over 100 participants at Oak Glen Park on Sunday afternoon. The march, organized by Howell High School graduate Juliet Klesitz along with co-organizers Victoria Kimberlin-Orsini and Megan Arnold, was realized in part due to Klesitz’s awareness of the high school’s Confederate soldier mascot. A petition to replace the symbol currently has over 3,200 signatures.

“I saw a screenshot of someone editing the confederate flag onto the Howell High School Rebel's tee shirt,” Klesitz told Patch. “That was just so revolting and mortifying to see. It also made me realize that it was a confederate soldier as our mascot. I don’t think anyone actually said that or brought it to my attention. Multiple of my classmates thought it was a Revolutionary War rebel, but once we learned that it was Confederacy-based, I was like ‘this is really weird’”.

Although Howell High School teams will keep the Rebel label, the district is “working with our student body to hear their thoughts and design a new image for the school’s mascot in the near future,” according to a statement on the district website.

“There is a racist history ingrained into our township,” the Howell High School graduate said. “I wanted to organize something to not only bring awareness to that but stand in solidarity with the rest of the state and the country and the towns around us who are making us stand against racism in our country.”

Before the event, Klesitz met with Chief of Police Andrew Kudrick and Captain John Storrow, both of whom were “very supportive and saw where I was coming from,” according to Klesitz. “I wanted to come from a place of unity and compassion for my town. I’ve lived here my whole life, so it’s like I’m embarrassed that I never noticed this locally and I wanted to make a stand the best way I could.”

In less than a week, the Howell resident – in conjunction with Ocean County-based community service organization Rays of Hope – arranged to have guest speakers, voter registration booths and even a make-your-own sign station at the rally. The local Starbucks also donated coffee at pastries to the event, according to Klesitz, and a Seton Hall University student sold tee-shirts at the event to raise money for a protester bail fund.

The rally began at Oak Glen Park basketball court at around 3:30 p.m., where speakers such as Pastor Obadiah Clark, Howell High School student Danielle Ocholla and Klesitz took to the microphone before the crowd marched down Old Tavern Road. At age 16, Ocholla was the youngest speaker in the group, but delivered a powerful message relaying her own personal experiences and identification with the Black Lives Matter movement.

“Even though I’ve had support from the administration, I’ve had racist encounters with other students,” Ocholla told Patch after the rally. “I personally can relate to the victims of police brutality knowing that my family could be those victims because of our race. It’s definitely what motivates me to be a part of this ... it's not necessary for our school to be represented by a Confederate soldier."

But despite the conclusion of the rally on Sunday evening, Klesitz insisted that the protest is just the beginning, serving as a jumping off point for community residents to spark a dialogue in their town. To the organizer, the protest isn’t the end of the discussion, but rather serves as an opportunity to talk about these issues further.

“It’s important for smaller towns to stand around and for a citizen to say ‘nobody around me cares about these problems,’” said Klesitz. “It’s important to encourage these conversations amongst white people because there’s a lot of people just deleting and blocking each other and they don’t want to talk about it. You need to speak one-on-one face-to-face to know what we’re actually fighting against, because all those words don’t fit on a sign.”