Brett Kelman

TDS

Coachella Valley High School officially changed its school mascot to "the Mighty Arabs," Tuesday, after the school board unanimously adopted a new logo that has been approved by an anti-discrimination group.

The new mascot and the name change was unveiled during Tuesday night's Coachella Valley Unified school board meeting in Thermal. It was approved during closed session.

Because the vote was held in closed session, all discussion occurred behind closed doors. The mascot vote was not on the meeting agenda, so despite it being a hotly debated topic, Tuesday night's meeting was sparsely attended.

Superintendent Darryl Adams said the district will hold a news conference Sept. 19 to further discuss the switch to the new mascot.

"Dealing with the mascot issue has gone worldwide. I'm glad to see that coming to an end," Adams said Tuesday night. He also thanked parents, students and school staff for being patient while the district addressed this controversial issue.

Adams said the mascot vote was not specifically included on the agenda because it was listed as "potential litigation" in closed session.

The previous CV High mascot — "The Arab," minus the "mighty" — wore a scowl and a headscarf. It had a hooked nose, a thick beard and a single tooth. The sneering face is featured on the school's website, welcome sign and in a giant mural on the side of the gym.

At football games, a student would dress in a cartoonish mascot costume with an enlarged head. The person often appeared on the sidelines with another student dressed as a belly-dancing genie. The district said last week that both the previous Arab and the genie costumes have been retired.

The new school logo is also the face of an Arab man, but its looks are vastly different from its predecessor. The face is half-covered in shadow. Gone are the villainous scowl and the single tooth. This image is of a stoic, strong-jawed man with a neatly trimmed beard.

Although the new mascot has been chosen, the old logo must be replaced at school facilities and on student uniforms. Coachella Valley Unified plans to pay for these changes using private donations — without spending any tax dollars — according to a news release.

In a statement released Wednesday morning, Adams said he was proud of how the mascot controversy was handled, and he hopes Coachella Valley Unified will serve as a "role model" for other school districts or groups in similar situations.

"The realization that the Coachella Valley High School mascot and name was offensive to fellow citizens or any group is one that we cannot ignore," Adans said in the statement. "As educators, we are beacons of hope and light in helping students understand their place in society and that place does not include stereotypical images that offend. As I said before, we must forever keep our eyes, ears and hearts open to the feelings of others even when no disrespect or harm is intended.

Coachella Valley High has used an Arab mascot since the 1920s, when the school unveiled a drawing of a lance-wielding horseman with a striped headscarf.

In the 1950s, the school traded the horseman for two new drawings: a standing figure with a scimitar and the angry face of an older man wearing a fez. In the 1980s, the angry face swapped the fez for a headscarf, becoming the controversial school logo that is now retired.

The Arab mascot first drew objections this past November when the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, a civil rights group in Washington, D.C. sent a letter that accused the district of "orientalist stereotyping."

The letter thrust Coachella Valley High into the national media spotlight, where the old mascot was widely criticized.

Abed Ayoub, a representative of the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, said last week that the group fully supports the new mascot. CV High students helped choose three mascot design options, which were sent to the anti-discrimination group for review.

"We passed it around to experts and community members," Ayoub said. "We took our time to get the opinion of that logo, and it was overwhelmingly positive."

Rich Ramirez, president of the Coachella Valley High Alumni Association, said the mascot change is not popular with many of the alumni, but he welcomed the re-design. In "today's litigious society," there was no room for that offensive face, he said.

"All the alumni want to keep it as it was," Ramirez said. "But I've written a lot of retorts saying, 'It's not up to us any longer in today's society. If you offend one of 10, you've got to do something about that one. … It's like the Redskins situation.' "

Ramirez didn't mind the addition of "mighty" either. Fans have used the "Mighty Arabs" nickname for years, he said.