Lee High School football players, including Tyquon Jacket, left, head out of the locker room after a weight-training session. Above the locker room door is an image of the school's Rebel mascot.
Posted on 04/07/2005 10:54:44 AM PDT by Ellesu
'Rebels' fading away
BATON ROUGE: Images of Colonel Rebel are hard to find at Baton Rouge's Robert E. Lee High School, but the school mascot has been the Rebels since 1959. That will change next year. The Lee High Rebels will be known next year as the Patriots, thanks to the school's decision late last month to change its mascot.
As the Rebels, the school had long ago abandoned Confederate flags and the more-controversial practices associated with schools named after Southern Civil War leaders.
While he approves that decision, Principal David Phillips said being the Rebels without really being the Rebels left the school without much of an identity. At football games, fans will say, "Go Lee High," but almost never say "Go Rebels." Last year, at homecoming, the school confiscated a Confederate battle flag that a student brought to school, he said.
"We were kind of a school with a mascot, but without a cause," he said.
Phillips said he thought about the name change since coming to the school two years ago, after having several students, parents and teachers suggest to him it was time to rethink the divisive mascot.
In the days of segregated schools, Lee High had only white students, and most people affiliated with the school didn't think twice about being associated with Confederate side of the Civil War, which was fought largely over slavery.
"It's not the same place," Phillips said.
The school's student body is 58 percent black and 20 percent white. The remaining students are from foreign countries for whom English is not their first language. Besides its racist and cultural connotations in the South, the word rebel connotes different things to different cultures.
"We were looking for something that would enhance the culture of our school, something that we could all get behind," he said.
Students shared their opinions on the mascot name change as they were leaving school Wednesday.
Senior Ryan Hayes, 18, said it's a good change because the student body is no longer predominantly white. He said he associates the word "Rebel" with white Southern culture.
The new mascot was one of several proposed by the school's improvement team. Students picked the Patriots as the name to replace Rebels. Nominated suggestions were Patriots, Raiders, Southerners, Generals and Gents. There was an option for write-in suggestions. Rebels, Steamboats, Blue Devils, Angels, Sooners and Bulldogs were write-in votes.
Patriots received 245 votes of a total 582. Rebels got 46 write-in votes.
The school colors -- red and blue -- won't change.
The Patriots, Phillips said, may have particular appeal for foreign language students eager to become citizens.
But Hayes said he thinks most students voted for Patriots because the New England Patriots won the Super Bowl.
His vote went for the Generals, he said, because Robert E. Lee's rank was general.
"It just seemed like it would fit better," he said.
Other students aren't happy about the change.
Venezuela native Andrea Campoblanco, 16, doesn't agree that the word "rebel" has a negative connotation.
"I don't agree that we should have to change," she said, "Rebels are people who stand up for what they believe in."
Grace Ellis, 16, said that "rebel" represents not only Southern culture, but the idea that Americans can embrace unpopular causes.
Grant Guidry, 16, said he thinks the change is wrong.
"The idea that it's racist is ridiculous. I don't think the change is necessary," he said.
The School Board's School Operations Committee had no objections to the change when the issue came up Wednesday.
Under school system policy, schools can select their own mascots without getting School Board approval.
School Board President Pat Smith praised Phillips at the East Baton Rouge School Board meeting Wednesday for "bringing this forward before some mass of people came out against it."
It will be up to the school to make the changes on various logos, banners and the school marquee.
Most of the team uniforms say Lee High School and don't include the Rebel logo or name.
Phillips said he's learned that in the late 1970s the school had considered changing its mascot to the Steamboats. Around that same time, the school also purged its memorabilia of overt references to the Confederacy.
Phillips said the change will cost the school between $3,000 and $5,000. Many teams, he said, already were planning to buy new uniforms, so that change won't cost any more than had been expected.
Lauren Diedrich, 16, said the name change will increase the cost to some cheerleaders and dance team members as they'll have to buy new uniforms, though.
But money isn't her biggest objection. It's tradition.
"My mom went here. My brother went here. We were always the Rebels. Plus, our class rings have Rebels. It's just stupid to change," Diedrich said.
Ingrid Rodriguez, 17, echoed Diedrich's feeling about family, because her siblings all graduated from Lee.
The school is deciding what the Patriot logo will look like.
The Rebel logo usually includes an icon commonly known as Colonel Rebel, a man dressed in an old-fashioned tail coat with a cravat and a Panama hat. The image is supposed to evoke a gentleman of the Old South.
In his written proposal seeking the change, Phillips described the mascot change as overdue.
"It is understandable that this change may be difficult for some to accept and for some to put into action," he wrote. "But, the time is now to make a change."
Lee High School football players, including Tyquon Jacket, left, head out of the locker room after a weight-training session. Above the locker room door is an image of the school's Rebel mascot.
How about placing being proud of your roots ahead of being politically correct?
Ping.
Looks just like the Mascot for Robert E. Lee HS in Midland Texas.
Where Laura Bush went, BTW.
And Gen. Tommy Franks.
I doubt the 58% of the school that is black are particularly fond of the roots associated with the "Rebel" mascot.
I'm sure I'll get flamed for mentioning this, but we need to do the same thing here in Jacksonvile, Florida. Most of the older high schools, and some of the middle schools are named after Confederate Generals. It's not such a bad thing overall I suppose, but the one named after Nathan Bedford Forrest (Confederate General/KKK Founder) really should change.
"The School Board's School Operations Committee had no objections to the change when the issue came up Wednesday.
Under school system policy, schools can select their own mascots without getting School Board approval."
I imgine plenty would be said if a school wanted to become the Rebels...
So, by implication, Robert E Lee is now a "Patriot" instead of a "Rebel"?
That kind of begs the question; what nation was he a Patriot to? The short lived CSA? The state of Virginia?
Why don't they just call themselves the "Generals" or something. Nobody can argue that he wasn't a General.
Surely the school's name will also have to change. Just wait and see. It won't take long.
So we filter our history depending on the racial makeup of the school where it's being taught?
From what I read in the story, that was one of the choices.
Robert E. Lee was a traitor to the United States of America. He was a "patriot" to the Confederate States.
I don't really see this as filtering history, so much as selecting who/what should be promoted and held up for emulation.
Why? MLK Jr. was purported to be a fornicator and adulterer. He has one school and street in every US town named after him.
No. Teach history that way it happened. But, AFAIK, a school mascot is not history, it's just a mascot that is subject to change if the students don't like it.
The middle schools named after Confederate Generals used to be high schools. They never changed names, just the grade levels that they "educated."
Where is the problem with naming schools after these famous military leaders? Remember, in the earliest days of Kappa Kappa Kappa (Forrest's time-period), it wasn't all about lynching.
Also, what will we do when the blacks find out that more fought for the CSA than the union? Eliminate any Ulysses S. Grant High schools? Rename Lincoln, Nebraska?
This sort of revisionist history is deplorable...
"Be ye King George's men, OR BE YE REBELS!"
Oh, wait! Wrong war!
Grrrrr.....
Much of this country believes the "rebels" were right, because they were fighting for states rights. The slavery issue was secondary. So much of this country would see the "rebel" name as a proud thing.
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