Students split on dropping Wildcats
Straw poll finds only a quarter of community favors nickname change
Staff writer
Contrary to what previously was reported, less than half of students and less than a quarter of community members surveyed favor abandoning Wildcats as the nickname for Marion Middle School.
And many of those on both sides of the issue suggest that the real question may be whether Marion High School should abandon its potentially offensive Warriors nickname.
According to raw data obtained by the Record under the Kansas Open Records Act, these percentages of various self-identified groups expressed support in a recent straw poll for changing the Wildcat name:
School employees 74.5%
Parents 71.4%
Students 47.3%
Community members 23.7%
Total 61.9%
District officials told those attending a public forum last Tuesday that 73% had favored calling middle school sports teams Warriors, the same name Marion High School uses, rather than preserving Wildcats, the nickname of Florence teams before consolidation 50 years ago.
The Wildcat name persisted when the district operated its junior high and middle school in Florence and continued even after the school moved to Marion nearly 30 years ago.
After print editions of the Record containing coverage of the Dec. 10 meeting went to press and the Record asked for the raw data, officials retracted the 73% number, saying they had counted respondents having no opinion as favoring the change.
Among all groups, according to data obtained Friday, 14.3% said they were neutral, 22.9% said they opposed the change, and 9.5% — all of them students — said they were unaware the middle and high schools had different nicknames.
As of Friday morning, 16.2% of respondents described themselves as district employees, 42.2% as district parents, 41.6% as district students, and 18.7% as community members.
Email addresses of those completing the survey were requested by the Record after consulting with a lawyer specializing in Kansas open-government issues.
He said the addresses, willingly supplied by respondents without any promise of confidentiality, were public information.
He added that, under law, any privacy concerns were outweighed by the issue being newsworthy and rendered moot by the newspaper’s promise to use the addresses only to determine whether people might have voted multiple times using varying addresses. The district nonetheless refused to release the addresses.
The majority of voting was done in the first two days of the survey. Voting by community members picked up after the possibility of a name change was reported in the Record. Only parents, students, and employees using an online app had been notified of the straw poll before then.
The straw poll was not a scientific survey. If it had been conducted scientifically, with random sampling of the entire population, the number of answers received (315) would have created an error margin of 5.3%. Error margins for different groups within the sample would have been significantly larger.
Comments included with answers given on the straw poll were sometimes vitriolic.
“As typical, cut Florence out of another thing,” one parent wrote.
A neutral parent echoed that sentiment.
“That community was promised certain things as part of the school consolidation,” the parent wrote. “Those terms have not been lived up to by their perspective.”
A community member opposed to the change wrote: “You are erasing part of the Marion-Florence history and culture.”
Another added: “Find something else to do with your extra time. Florence played a big part in the two communities coming together. Let’s not forget them.”
Yet another wrote, “Florence still needs to have their identity,” and a fourth wrote, “It’s a shame how Marion has dismissed the history of Florence.”
A fifth complained: “Enough has been stolen from the town by our consolidation without the Marion elite deciding to take away the last vestige of our Florence schools.”
That community member went on to express a significant undercurrent that emerged in many of the comments, both pro and con — that the real question was less about the Wildcat mascot and more about the potential for changing the Warrior mascot.
“An appropriate change would be to eliminate the Warrior mascot entirely out of respect for Native American groups,” the community member wrote. “Marion, in deciding to embrace the Warrior mascot entirely, is only demonstrating tunnel vision, cultural insensitivity, racism, and discriminatory views.
“This, of course, is nothing new to Florence citizens and students who have lived discriminatory practices in the flesh as part of this consolidated school district for decades.
“We get up earlier and ride buses to get to school. We have to hear how much smarter Marion students are, that they are better athletes, that Florence kids are troublemakers.”
The community member termed arguments in favor of dropping Wildcats “contrived at best and, more accurately, infantile and asinine.”
“If parents, students, and the community are so confused by having two mascots,” the community member wrote, “one wonders what is wrong with them, not the Wildcat mascot.”
Others picked up on concern about the Warrior mascot.
One neutral parent termed it “harmful to the indigenous peoples of America and should be changed to the Wildcats.”
Another questioned, “Will there be changes to the Warrior mascot within the next few years? If so, then I vote to make everyone a Wildcat. Peabody is Warriors and blue. Goessel and Centre also have blue school colors. Could we change our colors to make us stand out from them?”
A neutral employee expressed similar concern.
“If we ever have to change our Warrior mascot because some people find it offensive, will this just compound the problem?” the employee wrote.
Nearly all those voting in favor of changing the name cited either school unity or the cost and hassle of having to switch from Wildcat apparel and cheers to Warrior apparel and cheers.
One parent went so far as to suggest that the Wildcat name was emotionally damaging.
“Junior high kids have enough changes in their life, and segregating them with a separate mascot isn’t right,” the parent wrote.
But another parent termed the question of changing mascots “totally ignorant,” adding in jest: “I know. Let’s have all students wear identical uniforms so they are the same also. It would be cheaper in the long run and can be handed down from student to student through the years. Let’s continue to take individualism away. Way to go, USD 408!”
Several others voting in favor of a name change seemed to favor dropping Warriors and changing all schools to Wildcats.
“Have heard that it is possible they are going to have to change the Warrior mascot,” one community member wrote. “If so, change it to Wildcats so there’s not as much change.”
A parent also expressed concern about Warriors, writing: “My only concern is the longevity of Warrior for a mascot. Will the district be required to change it in the near future?”
Another parent who voted in favor of a name change came right out with it.
“I think the mascot could be Wildcats for both,” the parent wrote. “The county has quite a few Warrior mascots.”
A student seemed to agree that Wildcats might be a better name than Warriors.
“It’s weird to be the only school to be Wildcats,” the student wrote. “It reminds me too much of the K-State mascot. I wouldn’t mind if it was vice versa.”
Others seemed to suggest that school names, not nicknames, should change.
“I believe the mascot for all USD 408 schools should be the Marion-Florence Warriors,” one parent wrote.
At least one community member expressed disappointment about not initially being invited to express an opinion.
“As a taxpayer who supports the school district and had three children attend school as Wildcats, I’m asking that the history of those years not be erased,” the community member wrote. “In the future I would like to see all notices concerning the school district be advertised in the Marion County Record as there are a lot of senior taxpayers who do not use Facebook but are concerned with what is happening in our school district.
“Please inform all taxpayers, not just a few middle school parents. The middle school parents shouldn’t be allowed to make the decision for all taxpayers.”
Only one community member seemed to object to Wildcats on its face.
“Wildcats sound beta and makes us look soft,” the community member wrote.
But another proposed a compromise nickname: Warcats.
Another meeting on the issue is scheduled for noon Jan. 3 in the Performing Arts Center. A recommendation then will be made to the school board.