This is an article from the June 2025 Civitas Examiner (Volume 2, No. 3) and was written by one of our students, Henry B. The opinions expressed herein do not reflect those of Civitas other than respect for the value of open dialogue. To read more Civitas Examiner stories or to submit your own, click here.
House Bill 1237 is a controversial bill that aims to remove offensive Native American mascots from Illinois public schools. One senator thinks it goes too far.
HB1237 was a bill introduced in the Illinois House of Representatives by Representative Maurice West last January. The bill would force Illinois schools to change their offensive Native American names by 2030. If a school had permission from a federally recognized Native American tribe, they would be allowed to keep the mascot.
Northern Democrats in Chicago and the surrounding suburbs rallied around the bill. Southern Democrats and Republicans across the state were strongly against it. Republicans saw the bill as government overreach, while Southern Democrats thought it would erase culture.
Illinois Senator Erica Hariss from the 56th District was one of the main opponents of HB1237. Her district includes many schools that have Native American mascots, such as the Collinsville High School Kahoks and the Granite City High School Warriors. She expanded on why she felt the way she did about the mascot bill.
She elaborated on what the bill was about and certain things that it would prohibit high schools from doing. High schools with Native American mascots would be barred from creating more merchandise or school property with that mascot featured on them. She said that her main concern about the bill was the “erasure of culture and how much this would cost school districts.”
“The ability to get permission from tribes is unattainable,” Harriss said. For schools that have mascots such as the Indians, Kahoks, or Warriors, there is no tribe that corresponds with those schools, so they would be forced to give up their mascot no matter what.
The bill is currently referred to assignments, and Senator Harriss explained what that means. “Assignments is where a bill goes to sit. After a bill is filed, it goes to assignments. There is an assignment committee that decides where that will go next. That matters because the assignment committee can choose not to move a bill at all.” That is what the assignment committee has chosen to do. After the bill passed the Illinois House, the assignment committee refused to move it to the Senate. This move essentially kills the bill until it is reintroduced. The bill is expected to be reintroduced, and if the assignments committee is switched around by the Senate leadership, the bill will probably pass in the upcoming years.
Erica Harriss was also asked about her opposition to HB3527, otherwise known as the Prohibition of Discriminatory Disability Mascots Act. This bill would only affect one school in the state. It would affect Freeburg High School in Southern Illinois. The school’s mascot is the Freeburg “Midgets.” This name has been deemed extremely offensive by many advocates for people with dwarfism. Senator Harriss claimed that the name should stay because of the “very interesting story about the basketball team, who were shorter and kind of the underdogs. It is a very neat story.”
Erica Harriss certainly disagrees that HB1237 is a racist bill, and for that reason, she supports it. It is not clear whether this bill will ever pass the Illinois legislature. One thing is clear: this bill is very controversial and will continue to be in the future.
