The phrase “Red Raider for Life” might mean something quite different.

The Kahuku High and Intermediate School administration will change the school’s mascot after more than seven decades of being the Red Raiders, according to a letter written by Kahuku principal Donna Lindsey this week.

Lindsey will start exploring a new identity for the school after the Hawaii State Department of Education’s Civil Rights Compliance Branch received complaints that the moniker “Red Raiders” and the use of the tomahawk chop by fans are disrespectful and potentially discriminatory to Native Americans.

After the NFL’s Washington Redskins dropped their nickname in July, a petition to change Kahuku’s mascot drew 1,135 signatures. A counter petition was quickly drawn up that received 2,015 signatures.

Kahuku has been known as the Red Raiders since ‘Iolani’s Kenneth Bray gave the school his leftover uniforms with “Raiders” written above the chest during World War II. ‘Iolani dropped its color designation when it started athletics up again following the war but Kahuku embraced it.

The CRCB recommended the school find a neutral third party to facilitate the process of determining a new mascot, with the final determination coming from Lindsey and complex area superintendent Matt Ho.

Kahuku agreed to begin the process and to find stakeholder groups to help it come up with a mascot “not based on race, color, ancestry and national origin.”

The school’s football program backed down from its perceived Native American imagery in recent years, changing the logo from a depiction of a Native American warrior to that of a Polynesian warrior but the tomahawk chop in the stands could not be stopped. Kauai High School has been known as the Red Raiders since the 1930s.