Tuesday, September 25, 2007
High school plans to stick to its guns
Parry McCluer school officials say a mix-up in communication is responsible for the gaffe.
Parry McCluer High School's gun-toting mascot won't be stripped of his weapons, Buena Vista's top school official said Monday.
Superintendent Rebecca Gates said an announcement earlier this month that the school's "Fighting Blues" mascot had been reconfigured to conform with the school system's zero tolerance policy against guns in schools was made without her approval or community involvement. The mascot has not been changed, she said.
"Before we would make any adjustments to a mascot that's been in place since the 1960s, we would put in a whole process, interviewing students, interviewing community members," Gates said.
Parry McCluer uses a takeoff on the Warner Bros. cartoon character Yosemite Sam as the school's mascot. Sam appears in pirate garb (unlike the usual cowboy get-up of Bugs Bunny's perennial foil), wearing a broad-brimmed hat and waving flintlock pistols.
On Sept. 7, a news release from Buena Vista-based Mariner Media announced that Parry McCluer Principal Haywood Hand had decided to create a new logo this year that took Sam's guns away and replaced them with fists.
A mascot with guns would be a hypocritical contradiction of the school's gun policy, Hand was quoted as saying in the news release, which went on to say that the publishing company was hired to remove the guns and create a new logo of Sam.
Hand has not returned phone calls asking for comment about the matter, but Gates indicated the mascot did not contradict the school's no-guns policy.
"We're all trying to have safe and secure schools," she said. "That's always at the top of our agenda. But a mascot that represents athletics and a school system for that many years, that's a totally separate issue."
Andy Wolfe, who operates Mariner Media, said his company was paid $300 to change the logo. He said Hand approved the new logo, and Wolfe said he thought that approval was all that was needed. At least a few hundred school programs were printed with the new logo.
Wolfe said Monday he takes full responsibility for the mix-up in communication with the school system.
"Basically the cart got in front of the horse," he said.
Wolfe said he has taken some heat from a number of Buena Vista residents who are upset that the logo was changed without community input.
"I'm shot full of holes, but I'm good," he said.
Gates said she also heard from city residents passionate about preserving the school mascot.
"The tradition here in Buena Vista is very, very strong," she said. "That's one of the greatest things about Buena Vista. Our community supports our athletics and the Fighting Blues one hundred percent."
