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OKEMOS Okemos student-athletes will no longer compete as the Chiefs after district leaders cast a vote 30 years in the making.
The Okemos Public Schools Board of Education voted unanimously Monday to stop using the Chiefs nickname, which an increasing number of students, alumni and residents say is an offensive caricature of indigenous people.
The board hopes to adopt a new mascot by 2023.
The decision comes after decades of discussion surrounding Okemos Public Schools moniker, which was picked for the town of Okemos namesake, Chief Okemos.
Superintendent John Hood was the most recent district leader to consider a name change late last year. But discussions surrounding the nickname and mascot date at least to the mid-1990s, when Katie Cavanaugh, secretary for the Board of Education, was an Okemos High School student.