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struggle4progress

(118,378 posts) Tue Apr 24, 2018, 11:50 PM Apr 2018

South Albany High School drops Rebel mascot (OR)

Posted April 24, 2018 at 3:09 PM
By Lizzy Acker lacker@oregonian.com
The Oregonian/OregonLive

... Since the early '90s, the school has tried to rebrand the Rebel mascot to be a less obvious nod to the Confederacy, but there was a time when the school used imagery that included a Confederate flag and a Confederate soldier, Jim Haggart, executive assistant to the superintendent of the Greater Albany School District, said over the phone Tuesday.

At a school board meeting Monday night, acting Superintendent Tonja Everest decided to drop the Rebel as the mascot for South Albany. The move came after South Albany Principal Brent Belveal spent months researching how to deal with the problematic mascot ...

Belveal estimates that replacing Rebel-themed uniforms, signs and decorations will cost the school $114,200.

South Albany High School is over 70 percent white and less than 1 percent black. In January, Belveal took a group of 40 students to Portland's Parkrose High School, which is 30 percent white and 16 percent black, to hear what students at a more diverse school thought about the mascot ...

http://www.oregonlive.com/pacific-northwest-news/index.ssf/2018/04/south_albany_high_school_drops.html

3 replies

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South Albany High School drops Rebel mascot (OR) (Original Post) struggle4progress Apr 2018 OP

Class of '76 gratuitous Apr 2018 #1

An Oregon school had a Confederate Rebel mascot & uniforms? Incredible. appalachiablue Apr 2018 #2

They split off from Albany Union High School in 1971 Kittycow Apr 2018 #3

gratuitous

(82,849 posts)

1. Class of '76

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Tue Apr 24, 2018, 11:58 PM

Apr 2018

I'm more than a little surprised that my alma mater is getting this kind of attention. I'm good with the nickname going, and I think the students should select from a slate of alternative mascots.

appalachiablue

(41,180 posts)

2. An Oregon school had a Confederate Rebel mascot & uniforms? Incredible.

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2018, 01:46 AM

Apr 2018

Yes, about time they retired that image, jeesh.

Kittycow

(2,396 posts)

3. They split off from Albany Union High School in 1971

Reply to struggle4progress (Original post)

Wed Apr 25, 2018, 05:02 AM

Apr 2018

and thought it would be clever to use secession imagery, according to those there at the time. They got rid of the flag in 1990. At one point, a visiting team with black women were concerned about their safety because of the Confederate displays.

There are still Oldsters who display the Confederate flag and the Confederate soldier around town, though. There also appears to be some resentment that the original school, Albany Union, consistently has a higher ranking than they do.

A student suggested changing to the Revolutionary war soldier imagery as a mascot and I thought that was a good idea. They can still keep their name the Rebels, unless it's just too sullied by association.

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