After nearly a yearlong battle and accompanying controversy, the Sandusky Board of Education voted 4-3 Monday night to adopt the Sandusky Wolves as the newest mascot/logo, a decision that brought applause from at least one group in attendance– Sandusky students and their school council’s representatives.
Despite being the group who will use the mascot and accompanying logo the most, students have been heard from the least during the past few months, with student council president and mascot committee member Lilah Feehan explaining that they didn’t realize how heated members of the local group, Save the Sandusky Logo (previously known as Save the Sandusky Mascot), were about the decision until the prior two or three school board meetings. She and her fellow student council member, senior Sydney Beatty, stepped up to the podium following public comment by Rick Spiegel at the November 28 meeting. Spiegel, main contributor to Save the Sandusky Logo/Mascot, insisted students were afraid to join his cause.
“I talked to these students,” Spiegel said, saying the students wouldn’t attend the town hall scheduled with the Native American Guardians Association from 1:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Monday, despite being offered an afternoon’s worth of internship credit to help run equipment and set up. He went on, noting that the class of 2023 is different from his graduating class or any alumni’s class because, “They’ve become weak-minded and in body because they don’t have anything to call their name, their logo, to fight for.” He then insisted he meant no disrespect or to insult the students in attendance, but added that, due to generational differences, the current students need to learn from the older Sandusky alum “what being a Redskin is all about.”
Beatty followed Spiegel, introducing herself to the audience before informing them that she and her fellow student representatives were elected for two reasons: to initiate positive changes within the school, such as finding ways to boost student morale, and more importantly, to represent the student body. With this in mind, she shared how students were very frustrated about the mascot issue too, but not out of a desire to keep the Redskin imagery and name, but a desire to move forward.
“We’re also distraught by the comments that have been made about us, our community, our teachers, our administration and our school board. Although the students understand that these remarks made by community members are fallacies, they have become the center of attention,” Beatty declared.
Beatty then recounted a recent conversation she had with an unnamed community member regarding the mascot controversy. After sharing research that informed her opinion, the response Beatty received from the individual was that “all our teachers and school board do is lie and feed false information to my fellow students and I pertaining to the reason for changing the mascot. I did not hesitate before responding ‘I have faith that my school board is going to do what is best for me and my fellow students.'”
In response, Beatty says that the community member told her that it all comes down to what the taxpayers want. “As a student, I would like to believe that taxpayers care more about the quality of education we receive on their dollar, rather than picking out who our mascot is. Our future shall not be determined by our mascot, but will be determined by our education.”
Feehan gave more insight into student frustration when she took the podium, noting that the mascot change has been happening for many years, not just from over this past summer. She pointed out that ever since the original mascot committee was formed back in 2020, Sandusky had been different from other school districts across the country, because the committee had sought feedback from the public concerning the mascot/logo changes. She also noted that in the beginning of the process, students had been confused about the change and why it had to be done, but after assurance from teachers, students became excited.
Hallway conversation usually focused on what the mascot may be, with students looking forward to new cheers and decorations for the school to accompany it– feelings that soured when students heard the community’s response and how the issue was used to attack the administration and school board.
Feehan recounted that, “Instead of hearing laughter and excitement in the halls, we heard ‘Can someone get them to stop coming to our games and asking us to sign a piece of paper? They know we can stand up for ourselves, right? Can this be over already– we’re tired of having these conversations.”
Feehan also noted that, even though they claimed that they wanted to be involved, many community members had been ignoring the ways they could actually make a positive impact. “We don’t need to be asked to sign petitions outside of our football games. Although we want community involvement at the board meetings, we do not need the majority of the involvement to be negative. If the community wants to be involved, where are they when we’re putting up flags at the courthouse? Where are they when we’re cleaning our highways? And why aren’t they in the stands supporting our teams? This is the community involvement that we need.”
“This mascot is not going to make us who we are. This mascot change is in no way disrupting our education. These teachers want us to be the best that we can be, and a mascot isn’t changing what they’re teaching us.”
The vote to become the Sandusky Wolves takes place almost half a year after the board retired the Redskin name in April, with board members Jason Trepkowski, Daniel Gerstenberger, Susan Dreyer and Jane Jacobson voting Monday to adopt the change, while members Bob Hassler, Carolyn Stoutenburg and Norah Harding voted against.
They had pursued a grant from the Michigan Native American Heritage Fund back in June, but were rejected as they did not have a new mascot/logo to switch to. Still, as efforts by the district to find the new symbol for Sandusky increased, so did vocal contention among the community, prompting an unofficial survey on the matter to be mailed out this fall.
However, for Sandusky students, they now have an answer to a heckle that became all too common during sporting events: “What’s your mascot?”
