Wednesday, September 12, 2007
Editorial: The war on deadly mascots
Return the guns to Parry McCluer High School's pirate.
From the RoundTable blog
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Buena Vista's Parry McCluer High School has a zero-tolerance policy when it comes to guns on campus. That sensible policy became ludicrous when school officials disarmed their mascot, a flintlock-wielding pirate lost his weapons in a new logo.
Principal Haywood Hand saw conflict between the gun ban and the a mascot that featured pistols. "It is hypocritical to promote a mascot with a gun in each hand," he said. So he ordered the logo redrawn without guns.
No guns on campus -- smart.
No guns in a cartoon caricature -- silly.
Parry McCluer students did not look at their beloved pirate and think to themselves, "Gee, if it's OK for a buccaneer dressed in blue to dance around with antique guns, it must be OK for me. The school sure is sending me mixed messages."
High school students are smarter than that. They can discern between a cartoon that looks like Yosemite Sam and reality.
Such smothering protection is just as detrimental to maturing teens as letting them run wild without oversight.
What's next?
Will Christiansburg High School ban its Blue Demons? That is what a number of Christians demanded a few years ago after the Montgomer County School Board forced Blacksburg High School to change from the Indians to the Bruins. A zero-tolerance policy against devil-worship seems to demand it.
Or maybe Roanoke County's high schools need to update their mascots. Images of Knights, Highlanders, Titans and Vikings -- at Cave Spring, Glenvar, Hidden Valley and Northside -- all could go the wrong way. The schools do not allow lances, swords and axes on campus. Surely they share Principal Hand's concerns about hypocrisy.
Only Roanoke County's William Byrd High School seems safe with its incongruously tame Terriers. Then again, aside from service dogs, the school usually does not allow canines. That's another mixed-message.
Parry McCluer administrators should focus on the real guns that could make a campus dangerous, not a cartoon pirate.
