VAN NUYS — A Birmingham High School booster sued the Los Angeles Unified School District on Wednesday in an effort to reverse a recent ban on American Indian mascots, arguing that the new district policy muzzles free speech.
Jim Pitillo, a 1964 graduate of Birmingham and ardent fan of its team, long known as the Braves, contends in his suit that the district's policy "is unconstitutionally over broad in that 'Brave' or 'Braves' and 'Warrior' or 'Warriors' are not names of American Indians."
The suit goes on to claim that the policy so effectively limits protected speech it infringes on "the singing of the Star Spangled Banner"--a reference to its famous phrase, "home of the brave"--and would limit the use of books such as "The Last of the Mohicans."
Pitillo and his attorney, another Birmingham booster, were arrested for trespassing at the Van Nuys campus in September--less than three weeks after the policy was enacted--when they refused to leave a concession stand where they were selling T-shirts that read "Save the Braves, 44 Years of Pride," school district police said.
The mascot they want to save depicts an American Indian with a headdress, an image based on a respected Native American chief who lived more than two centuries ago.
"In my heart, I cannot see how anyone can find this positive image offensive," Pitillo told a news conference Wednesday shortly before filing the lawsuit in Van Nuys Superior Court. "I'm not advocating denigrating any race of people."
Pitillo's lawsuit seeks to cast the names of mascots in a positive light, arguing for example that the term "Braves" was used as "a symbol of the strength of our forefathers."
"I believe that most words and images are not inherently disrespectful," said attorney Frank Arrigo, another Class of '64 alumnus who was arrested with Pitillo in September. "To say that all American Indian images have to be banned is ridiculous."
District officials said they had not seen the lawsuit, which asks the court to invalidate the ban and names as defendants the seven members of the Board of Education, Supt. Ruben Zacarias, Birmingham High Principal Gerald Kleinman and Deborah Leidner, the area administrator in Van Nuys.
But district officials questioned the merits of Pitillo's claims. They said the district's policy does not deprive anyone of free speech or other constitutional guarantees. The policy, they said, was crafted specifically to prevent the spread of negative stereotypes about Native Americans.
