New York State Education Department Requires Some School Name Changes

In November 2024, the Port Jervis City School District sent a message to Students, Staff, Alumni, Parents, Guardians, Community Members, and Fans of Port Jervis Schools.

In start the message with "The time has come." They are referring to the time in which the New York State Education Department gave all New York State schools to change team names, mascots and logos.

The logos are that must be changed "derived from or having connections with Indigenous people in the past or present." Names like Warriors, Raiders, Braves Chiefs, Indians and so on.  These school names need to officially be changed by June 30th, 2025.

Port Jervis School Teacher Makes The Push to Keep Name

Port Jervis City School District currently goes by the Raiders. In the November statement they share:

Our school district has a long history of being the Red Raiders, and it changed to the Raiders in 2001. Many people have a strong connection to our team names, past and present.

With that they add that "This is NOT our choice, yet something we must do as a school district.  Our team names, Red Raiders, and Raiders will forever be in our hearts."

On January 28th, 2025 a video began to circulate from a social studies teacher in the Port Jervis School District stating his case for keeping the name Port Jervis Raiders. In the video Kelly Decker breaks down the history of the Raider name in the Hudson Valley area, which you can watch below:

Decker has worked in the Port Jervis School District for 13 years, but has lived in the area all his life and served as a Police Officer and the 1st School Resource Officer. . He was also the city's mayor for 10 year, but stepped down last January.

You can find the Google Doc online with all the information Decker shared above.

While many in the comment section agree with Decker's stance, others have voiced their opinions on why the name change should occur. One commenter wrote:

We need to take a stand against Indigenous racism in the form of school mascots and imagery. These symbols perpetuate harmful stereotypes and disrespect the rich cultural heritage of Indigenous peoples.

 

Other Hudson Valley Schools Change Mascot Names

As mentioned earlier the deadline for New York State schools to change their names in June 2025.

Several schools across the Hudson Valley region have already changed their name and put it into rotation. For instance, Ketcham High School which was once the Indians, is now The Ketcham Storm.

In July 2023, Webutuck who went by the Warriors changed to the Wildcats.

We will update this story with any additional information about the Port Jervis name change in the future.

Hudson Valley School Mascots, Ranked

Gallery Credit: Jonah

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