School

Kaukauna High School’s Galloping Ghost statue evokes KKK, students say

KAUKAUNA – In 2000, Kaukauna High College principal Barbara Fox McCurdy reported the bronze Galloping Ghost statue planned in close proximity to the entrance to the new substantial university was meant to give students a “sense of the earlier.”

But then — and because then — some group associates have claimed the statue evokes a unique historic impression from the a single meant.

Depicting a ghost with its arm raised in the air riding a horse, the statue is meant to portray the school’s longtime mascot. Some say the hooded determine resembles a member of the Ku Klux Klan.

Concerns about the statue’s appropriateness arose once again in January, when a team of recent pupils asked the school board to take out it.

In reaction, the district determined three opportunity possibilities for the statue’s long run, according to an emailed assertion from Superintendent Mark Duerwaechter.

The 1st selection is to go away the statue as it is, the 2nd is to insert a sign in front that reads “Welcome to the Residence of the Galloping Ghost,” and the third is to relocate it absent from the entrance entrance of the significant college. 

The school board is expected to make a decision by the close of June, Duerwaechter said in e-mails to The Post-Crescent.

Even though several social media responses have criticized the students’ considerations — pushing again in opposition to the idea that a depiction of the school’s beloved mascot could be reasonably construed as racist — the learners argue that removing the statue would better reflect the inclusive and welcoming surroundings they know Kaukauna to be.

Brynn Reffke delivers the game ball before Kaukauna High School hosts Kimberly High School during their football game on Friday, October 15, 2021, in Kaukauna.

Pupils say statue gives a mistaken ‘first impression’

1 of six pupils who supplied published statements to the school board recounted the trauma and hardship handed down by the generations of their loved ones, together with their father being identified as racial slurs even though growing up in northeast Wisconsin.

The Ku Klux Klan oppressed Native Individuals by “violent and dangerous rhetoric,” the university student wrote, expressing, “we can not go away it standing any for a longer time.”

Related Articles

Back to top button