The Brentwood Union Free School District [BUFSD] in Brentwood, Long Island, was recently ordered by the state of New York to drop its Indian mascot. On April 18, 2023, the Board of Regents, a 17-member body overseeing state education policy, unanimously voted to ban all Indian mascots at public schools without the express consent of the Seneca Nation Tribal Council. Essentially, they gave the Seneca City Central School District a monopoly on Indian mascots in the state.
All other schools are ordered to eliminate their Indian mascots by the end of the 24-25 school year.
Some schools are attempting to sue to retain their historical Indian mascots.
The Brentwood Union Free School District held a public vote on a new mascot. Students, staff, and parents voted for the Spartans over the Owls, Bears, Eagles, and Big Green Machine. According to Great Schools, Brentwood High is 87% Hispanic and 8% Black.
Now, a local NAACP branch president and school district administrator, William King Moss III, is suing BUFSD, claiming a White mascot violates the civil rights and state constitutional protections of Blacks.
Moss is attacking Spartans in particular but also says no school should have any White mascot in general.
According to the local NAACP website, Moss is a BUFSD administrator for “Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion [DEI].”
From Islip-Smithtown NAACP…
Bill Moss has been president of the Islip-Smithtown Branch for seven years. He is a school administrator and former math teacher in the Brentwood School District. His strength is program development and diversity, equity & inclusion in public schools. A descendent first cousin of Zora Neale Hurston, Bill is one of few living Harvard College graduates with a bachelors in education.
However, the National Urban League says he is the Director of Academic Affairs in the neighboring Lawrence Union Free School District [LUFSD]. A recent interview from February 2025 also lists him as such. The interview also says he has been the local NAACP president for ten years, suggesting the local NAACP website is three years outdated.
Moss’ parents are both Black immigrants who, for some reason, chose to immigrate to a White country instead of one of the dozens of Black countries. His mother, a former Brentwood school board member, is an immigrant from Belize. His father is an immigrant from Jamaica.
Moss graduated from Harvard, where he would have benefitted greatly from the school’s intense preferential treatment for Black applicants. The NAACP says he is one of the “few living” people with a BA in Education from Harvard, a college that does not offer a BA in Education.
This is NOT the first time that Moss has sued the school district. Public records show he has been habitually taking action against the District for years!
Federal Lawsuits:
In 2023, he unsuccessfully sued the District for racial discrimination.
State Lawsuit:
In 2025, he filed a lawsuit demanding that the District not use a White mascot.
State Appeals to the Commissioner of Education in New York:
In 2018, he unsuccessfully tried to block the appointment of Robert Cummings, a White man, as chief custodian.
In 2020, he unsuccessfully tried to force the District to remove Richard Loeschner, a White man, as superintendent.
In 2020, he unsuccessfully tried to have multiple White and Latino district officials removed.
In 2021, he unsuccessfully challenged the employment of multiple teachers.
In 2022, he unsuccessfully tried to reverse the appointments of Rosa Cortese and Rosa Nieves, both White, as elementary school principals.
“I am more concerned about White people not learning Black history than about Black people not learning their own.” – William King Moss, 2025.
