Brumm, who has applied for trademarks to effectively block the school from using the new “Marquette Sentinels” name has taken further action.

On Wednesday, Brumm submitted a petition to recall MAPS board of education members Jennifer Ray and Jennifer Klipp. In the petition, her reasons cite the board’s “failure to manage embezzlement of at least $100,000, failure to keep written records as required concerning donations of rebranded T-shirts, failure to manage rebranding efforts in a fiscally prudent manner and a second failure to publicly review financial status of MAPS at publicly scheduled school board meetings.”

In light of what she called the recent embezzlement scandal in the MAPS Central Administration Office, Brumm noted her concerns for the identity of the anonymous donor(s) who gifted the district 1,100 Marquette Sentinels T-shirts. In order to find out if this was a quid pro quo situation where someone donates money or goods in exchange for the school rebranding, Brumm submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to the board.

In return, the MAPS FOIA coordinator said, “FOIA is limited to the disclosure of existing public records and does not require the district to answer questions. Nevertheless, in an act of good faith, the district explains that the subject donation was made anonymously. We have no cover letter, receipt, purchase order or other record that identifies the donor(s) by name, address or contribution amount.”

BRUMM

Concerned that MAPS lacks a financial record of the funds, Brumm submitted the petition and reported the statement to Marquette County Sheriff Greg Zyburt, city of Marquette Police Chief Ryan Grim and the Marquette County Prosecutor’s Office.

“As an officer of the court, I’m not allowed to ignore things like that,” Brumm said. “When you take an oath of office, you take an oath under the state of Michigan that you will advance the progress of justice.”

Furthermore, her terms for settlement with MAPS have changed. She now said she will give the trademarks to MAPS if the board changes the name back to Redmen, effective for the next eight calendar years from the decision. Over those eight years, she will require surveys to be presented to all MAPS voters and school-aged children from middle school to 12th grade asking if they are OK keeping the name Redmen. If, at the end of those eight years, the data is compiled and found to have more than 51% in favor of getting rid of the Redmen name, it will be changed. If not, it will stay the same.

“I know for a fact that there’s a bunch of students at Marquette (Senior) High because they weren’t allowed to pick Redmen in the surveys they were given. They weren’t allowed to pick it,” Brumm said. “… This idea that ‘the students are behind it’ (is) not true. Some students are behind it, some are not. But all of the people who are against it have given me feedback that they weren’t listened to.”

Brumm additionally requested that MSHS hockey announcer John Thomsen be rehired. Brumm alleges that Thomsen used the Redmen name multiple times over different games because “he was excited” in the heat of the game. Regardless of his superiors telling him not to do that, the behavior continued. He offered resignation, and MAPS accepted. She said that he is now banned from announcing and attending games on the team bus.

“How they got rid of him was just disgusting,” she said. “He’s a long-term, very loyal employee and he got excited during games and he used the old name and this was before they had the new name. He’s not against the name change, he just got excited calling the games.”

Concerning the previously used mascot, the head of an Indigenous chief with a headdress, Brumm said, even the portrayal is incorrect. The Native American depicted is from the Plains, not the Upper Peninsula.

“The Indians up here had different costuming,” Brumm said.

She said that if her terms are met, she would not want the original mascot back and would be fine keeping the current block-M logo.

As for her state and federal trademarks, Brumm said she has obtained official trademark registration of “Marquette Sentinels” to be used on clothing as well as the “block M with spacer, the word Sentinels is horizontally presented, centered vertically on the block M” also for clothing. She has also submitted applications for these two trademarks on the federal level, pending approval.

Brumm’s federal service mark application pending approval is the use of “Marquette Sentinels” for “educational services, namely, conducting programs in the field of business.”

MAPS currently holds the registered service mark on the state level for “Marquette Sentinels” to be used for “education and entertainment services.”

Michigan’s trademark and service mark approval attorneys work much faster than the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office due to their lack of an opposition process. On the federal level, a party who disagrees with the use of the trademark can send in an opposition with their reasoning, which has the opportunity to go to the Trademark Trial and Appeal Board where a decision will be made.

Brumm said she has no guilt over filing the trademark applications because her family has been associated with the former Marquette Sentinels hockey team “forever.” Her relatives Lenard Wilson “Ike” Brumm, Sr., was the manager of the team and Lenard Wilson “Okie” Brumm, Jr., was a player.

She finally expressed that between the issues related to money and the rebranding issue, she is taking the actions she is because “somebody needs to stand up and say, ‘This is not right.'”