Skyla P

Mascot Essay

            Depending on where the location of your school is the mascot may or may not be a problem, but in my community it has become a serious issue. Our school has a senior writing class and we have had some great discussions on whether we agree or disagree with the issue of changing our school mascot. Many have agreed, some have disagreed and a few were in between on what way they would choose if this was really happening in our school today.

            We discussed in class the issue of  changing or keeping mascots. “If it came down to us really having a say if our mascot had to be changed we would disagree! We wouldn’t want it to be something other then the Warriors and Scarlet’s,” said some students.   Others said “the names Warriors and Scarlet’s have a historical meaning to the school and reservation and we like to represent what those names real meanings are.” But on the other side of the room there were classmates who wanted the mascot to be changed because we aren’t actual Warriors and Scarlet’s.   Everyone has their own opinion on what the mascot names represent. Each student had a very different opinion on the subject of mascots.  One classmate stated “it would depend on what our school and community would want to change the mascot to, and if it actually meant something.”  A lot of the class said that they would want to keep Warriors and get rid of Scarlet’s and change the ladies to Lady Warriors.

            On our reservation there are two other schools’ mascots that have been up for debate on whether the names and logos should be changed. Ronan Chiefs and Maidens for example is one of the schools which had this issue directed at them.  The community and school fought for it to stay the same and didn’t change it because it meant something to them and it’s been around forever. Hot Springs Savage was the other school around our area which has struggled with their mascot name.   People thought that savages were racist and offensive to Native Americans and their culture. So after a long debate on whether or not it should be changed the school came up with an idea to just add heat to the end of Savages. So they are now known as Hot Springs Savage Heat. There are still people out there that think this name is just as offensive. 

  If our school were to change the school mascot I would want it to be changed to Lady Warriors and Warriors so we aren’t losing all of the schools meaning, for example most are proud to be called Warriors and Scarlet’s and if the school had to lose both of the mascots we would lose some school pride; because we would be possibly changing the colors and logos of the school. I know from personal experience that when you walk out of that locker room and you hear people yell for Warriors and Scarlet’s it’s a pride statement the community is proud to call us that. If you think about it almost every school in our area has one school mascot not two. For example Charlo Vikings both guys and girls go by the same mascot Charlo Lady Vikings and Vikings.   Also, Polson Pirates have the same logo for each of their boys and girls.  Our school would have the same logo and meaning, not two different mascot names.

            In conclusion the school community will never be able to 100 percent decide on how to please everyone on regards to mascots. In my opinion I think school mascots are always going to be a issue debated because not everyone will be happy with the decisions that are made, in my essay I discussed how multiple schools on this reservation went through the process of changing their mascot. I also showed how divided those decisions were by showing how one school changed them and the other did not. The point I’m trying to prove is that this is a very sensitive issue and the entire community needs to be involved on the decision making process.