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Cullowhee Valley School retires controversial mascot BY HANNAH MCLEOD STAFF WRITER ullowhee Valley School will no longer be represented by the Rebel mascot, which is personified by an old, white, Confederate general. After two rounds of public comment in opposition to the mascot, and a petition with over 900 signatories, the Jackson County School Board decided during a Tuesday, Jan. 26, meeting to discontinue use of the controversial name and symbol. Cullowhee Valley School had used the Rebel mascot since 1958, four years after the Brown v. Board of Education Supreme Court decision that deemed school segregation illegal. In 1994, when the Camp Lab school closed and Cullowhee Valley School opened, there was some discussion within the community about changing the mascot, but ultimately, CVS remained the Rebels. Over the past year, CVS graduates in Jackson County and around the country wrote letters to school board members and started a petition to engage the Jackson County community. They also began fundraising efforts for new signage and renovations needed if a new mascot could be decided on and created education platforms in support of a new mascot. At the school board meeting Tuesday night, Kelley Dinkelmeyer spoke in support of retiring the mascot. Though she is not from Jackson County, she says, she grew up immersed in Southern culture. She said that in speaking to her daughter and her daughter’s friends, who attend CVS, she knows that many of the students there see the mascot as a symbol of hate. “It’s not really a mascot, it’s a piece of adult nostalgia,” said Dinkelmeyer. Annie McCord Wilson previously campaigned to change the rebel mascot when she
Smoky Mountain News
February 3-9, 2021
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The motion stated that the mascot, name and logo at CVS be discontinued and that the students at CVS be permitted to select a new logo by no later than the start of the 20212022 school year. The timeline and process for selection by the student body will be left to the discretion of the superintendent and the administration of CVS. “The timeline and process for selection of the new mascot and logo will be established was an eighth grader at CVS. At that time, the tion to the Jackson County School Board. Speaking to the board during that in the coming months by the superintendent image of the rebel colonel was prominent in school administration,” said the school, painted on the walls in the gym, October meeting Wilson said, “there is much and lunchroom and hallways. Her daughter now that could be said, but I wish to keep it sim- Superintendent Dr. Tony Tipton. Following the decision to discontinue the attends CVS and, McCord says, the image is ple. The rebel mascot divides. An inclusive environment requires a non-controversial rebel mascot, McCord stated the importance more toned down these days. of next steps. McCord was one of the organizers of the mascot that all CVS students can cheer for.” “Moving forward, for now I think it’s Emily Virtue, a parent at Cullowhee Valley group “retire the rebel,” that restarted the important to take a beat,” said McCord. “There are a lot of people in our community who are grieving the loss of this mascot that has been in the school for almost 70 years. I think it is really important to take some time and allow people to process, and, moving forward respectfully. I think it’s really important that we keep that in mind as we move forward. And I know that the administration at the school is definitely on that same page and wanting to have a respectful retirement for the rebel.” Because there are such broad implications to changing the mascot for a school, the “retire the rebel” group has been fundraising for several months now to provide economic assistance for the change. The group hopes that the process of changing the mascot can be a learning experience for CVS students. “We’ve been doing fundraising, Cullowhee Valley School has used the Rebel mascot since 1958. Donated images we have over $1,100 at this point and we’re still counting every day. So and a professor of education leadership, pre- that’s great, to kind of help offset the cost of movement to change the mascot last year. some of these changes,” said McCord. “I “I think that the cultural and political cli- sented the petition with McCord. “It is not an image of pride. It is an image have contacts for supporters of the rebel mate recently, gave us a good platform to encourage us to help the community make of power and divisiveness. It reminds us that who I hope to be able to work with moving this change. There has been lots of awareness at one time, white power over black people forward and creating some preservation and recently about racial injustice. People are con- was valued and keeping this mascot we con- kind of framing the rebel in a historical confronting those parts of ourselves that we don’t tinue to send that same message, at least text, which I think is important for commureally like to confront, and people are educat- implicitly, that we value the concept of power nity members, but also for the students as a ing themselves about implicit bias and ways over black people, more than we value black learning experience for the students to understand why this decision was made and that, even without thinking, we could be act- people themselves,” Virtue said. The decision by the board to discontinue why there are people who support keeping ing in a way that’s discriminatory or making other people feel uncomfortable,” Wilson told the Rebel mascot on Jan. 26 passed with a the rebel and people who support getting rid of it.” SMN last October after she presented the peti- unanimous vote.
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