On October 10th, the Board met and reviewed the submitted designs for the gym floor. The students had voted on their favorites in four categories and the ones below were those that were chosen by the students. Please note that these are renderings only and will not necessarily be the exact design chosen.
In addition to the above options selected by the students, a community member asked the below and it was voted on by students with comments:
The Board would like additional comments regarding the logos and wanted to share the following information from the Oregon School Board Association’s lawyer:
“A mascot should not discriminate in any way or have the effect of favoring one protected class over another (the protected class could be race, gender, religion, disability, etc.). There have been several mascot-related issues in Oregon over the past few years:
- South Eugene High School changed from Axemen to the Axe to be more inclusive of female students, https://www.4j.lane.edu/2018/02/south-eugene-team-name/;
- South Albany High School went from the Rebel to the Redhawk to be more inclusive of students of different races, https://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/04/south_albany_high_school_drops.html;
- Franklin High School (Portland) is dropping its Quaker mascot to respect the religion, and alleviate concerns of discrimination and the district endorsing a religion, https://www.oregonlive.com/education/index.ssf/2018/05/portland_school_board_finds_qu.html;
- Numerous districts and schools have removed Native American mascots as a result of the State Board of Education action, https://www.oregon.gov/ode/about-us/stateboard/Pages/State-Board-of-Education-Bans-Use-of-Native-American-Mascots.aspx. OAR 581-021-0047 provides guidance;
While these districts may have had different reasons for changing their mascots, I think that the key is whether it singles out or leaves out a group of students, particularly if that group is a protected class. This could be in the name of the mascot or the imagery used to represent the mascot. The most common would be gender, race and religion, but a mascot could be offensive to other protected classes (students with disabilities, sexual orientation, etc.).”
If you would like to provide a comment to the board, please fill out the below form. The name and e-mail are required. Any comments with profanity, obscenity, or vulgarity will not be accepted. You can also share comments with the Board members directly. Comments will be open through Sunday, October 21st and the Board will meet on Tuesday, October 30th at 6:00 p.m. at Mapleton High School to review the comments and select a design. Thank you for your input.
Accepting of comments is now closed. Thank you for your participation.