THERMAL, Calif. — A special meeting will be held to discuss the growing controversy over a Southern California high school’s longstanding Arab mascot.
The Desert Sun reports Tuesday that the Coachella Valley Unified School Board had planned to address the issue at a regular Nov. 21 meeting, but decided to hold a special meeting Friday to allow more time for discussion.
Coachella Valley High School’s mascot has been around since the 1920s. It was chosen to recognize the area’s reliance on date farming, traditionally a Middle Eastern crop. Rich Ramirez, the Coachella Valley High School Alumni Association president, told NPR the nickname went from Date Pickers to Desert Rats and then to Arabs in 1931.
The mascot has evolved from a turban-wearing horseman carrying a lance to a standing figure with a snarl on its face and sporting a headscarf.
“A mascot chosen to show reverence and honor for the customs of prideful Middle Eastern peoples throughout our region, now provokes negative feelings, and this must be addressed,” school superintendent Darryl Adams told the paper in a letter.
The Coachella Valley Unified School District has a student body that is 99 percent Latino, according to NPR.
“Times change, people change, and, subsequently, even symbols and words embraced for decades may need to be considered for change as well,” Adams’ letter said.
The changes were spurred by a damning letter from the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee that demanded the “demeaning” mascot be removed. The group was concerned not only of the mascot but “a female dressed as belly dancer entertains the mascot by dancing for him,” according to CNN.
Adams told the cable channel last week that they would be open to changing the appearance of the mascot.
“It’s not so much the name but the depiction of the mascot,” Adams told CNN. “I’m from Memphis, Tennessee, so I understand how people can look at different symbols and caricatures. I look at it as an educational opportunity for our students and staff to discuss it. Things evolve over time, and it’s the 21st Century and it’s 2013, and this group feels we need to look at it and we will.”