Lancaster High School students hold signs in front of Lancaster High School to protest the district’s dropping of the school's nickname and mascot Thursday, March 19, 2015, in Lancaster, N.Y. The students in the western New York school district walked out of class in protest of a decision to retire the Redskins nickname because it offends some Native Americans. The school board voted this week to retire it altogether after three nearby districts with sizeable numbers of Native American students canceled lacrosse matches. (AP Photo/Gary Wiepert)

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LANCASTER, N.Y. (AP) — About 300 students walked out of their western New York school and through the streets on Thursday in protest of their district’s decision to retire the Redskins nickname because it offends some Native Americans.

At times chanting “Let’s go Redskins!” the students gathered at the start of school and walked into the village of Lancaster before returning to campus. Among their signs were ones saying “School board speak with forked tongue” and “Once a Redskin, always a Redskin.”

The protest followed a vote earlier this week by the Lancaster Central School Board to retire the nickname after more than 60 years. The suburban Buffalo district had been phasing it out the past few years but was under increasing pressure to do away with it altogether. Monday’s special session of the board was called after three neighboring districts with Native American students announced they would boycott lacrosse games against Lancaster.

The protesters said students had never used the term Redskins in a derogatory way and considered the name, and logo of a Native American man’s face, a source of school pride.

Superintendent Michael Vallely said about 200 high school students and 100 from the middle school participated in Thursday’s walkout. The district has nearly 2,000 students.

“We realize that traditions are sometimes hard to leave behind,” Vallely said in a statement, “but we do need to rethink traditions when they have become hurtful and perceived as disrespectful of others, even unintentionally.”

The district said students would be involved in creating a new mascot and logo.

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