East High alumni carry a lot of pride for their school and its mascot: “the mighty, mighty warrior.”

"It's a tradition. East High was a tradition, and it's a pride. A warrior pride that we have,” East High Alumni Association President, Beverly Edmonds-Potts told Erie News Now.

When the high school permanently closed in 2018, graduates were devastated. But, they held on to their alma mater's image.

That's why dozens of former students turned up to Wednesday's school board meeting, protesting a resolution to scrap the logo completely and have a different image represent East Middle School.

"We're not seeking to change the name of the mascot or the school identity surrounding that. What we're seeking to do is to remove the racist depiction, the stereotype of a Native American," said Erie Public School board member, Jay Breneman. He introduced the image change resolution, citing research from several Native American activist organizations, claiming the image does more harm to indigenous students than good.

"We, as leaders, have to address both the obvious and visual depictions, even though there's history attached to it. People are fond of it. We have to address that, but we also have other matters of racism we have to address in our schools. This is part of it," said Breneman.

However, many don't see the image as a symbol of racism in schools. "It carries different meanings and it should never be portrayed as the wrong thing,” Evan Everhart said. He crafted the large warrior sculpture hanging in the East Middle School lobby. It’s made from old handrails that were in the original school.

It's not just a sculpture of an Indian chief to him. It means much more. "I was commissioned to make this piece by an alumnus. It was in memory of his wife,” said Everhart.

He says to take it down would move students in the wrong direction. "It seems like a backwards move to me that wouldn't really solve anything, except upsetting some other people and causing discord. We should be better at peacemaking," he said.

Ultimately in a 5-4 vote, the Erie Public School Board tabled the resolution for further discussion.

No word just yet on when the topic will be discussed publicly, but members of the board say they want to hear more from the public before discussing the image change any further.