Utterly Ridiculous

[LadyHawk108]

I'm really not sure what forum to put this in, but since it relates to my old high school alma mater I'm putting it under Education. Out of nowhere, I did a google search on my old schools in upstate New York. My old grade school is now a middle a school, my old Jr. High is now a 9th center and my high school is still a high school. Okay, here's the issue...there was a link there to the school paper, The Lampion, same as we had when I was there....in the paper is the article about how the school mascot is going to be changed. We used to be the Fairport Red Raiders. Apparently, a few years ago the 'red' was taken out because it insinuated blood and there were droplets of "blood" coming off of the pirate cap. Okay, I can live with it...it's stupid, but I can lie with it. Now though, the school board in it's infinite wisdom has decided that a 'Raider' is still too violent to use as a mascot and has decided to change the mascot all together. Next year my alma mater will now be the "Fairport Fleas"! Can you imagine that??? The sports teams will now be known as fleas!! Some dribble about how they need each other to survive, blah, blah.... I sent a long letter to the school board. I'm sure it will do no good whatsoever, but I just cannot believe the idiocy of this country when it comes to politcal correctness. Of course when I lived there, I was oblivous to politics, I was 17 at best and had better things to do. I just cannot believe that the mindset of that community was so deluded and I was so totally clueless! Is it just me, or is that one of the stupidest thing you have ever heard??

[Rink]

Well maybe you should write to those dorks who decided to rename it 'fairport fleas to remind them of the fact that fleas are bloodsuckers that torment certain animals and the fact that some tender-skinned dogs and cats have been known to be allergic to flea bites not to mention fleas being bloodsuckers their bite also is painful to endure and has been known in history to spread diseases one well known disease is the bubonic plague.

[HomeschoolrsRUs]

Lady H,

It's happening ALL over the place. My beloved Seminoles have even come under attack for the use of the "war chant" at pep-rallies and sporting events. All over the nation political correctness is banging it's stamp of disapproval on school names, mascots, and mottos. It doesn't surprise me that "Raiders" isn't acceptable any more -- many schools in the south used to be "Rebels," and they changed them too.

Actually, I believe there was a thread (or two) since I have been coming to FC that discussed the politically correct crowd pushing to have school names and mascots changed because of discrimination and insensitivity. I'm sure if someone better at locating such things as I, wanders in, they'll be able to find the link to the thread(s) and post them here.

I'm with you on the extreme end of the ridiculous scale.

[Rink]

Maybe they need to rename it 'The Fairport Wimps'?

Just to be kind to fleas.

I think WolfCounsel is affecting me here, I had a much nastier idea for a name but chose this one instead. lol

[Longhorn_Platinum]

:smirky: Could have been worse. Could have been the Freeport "Fighting Gays".

[Peachdiane]

PC running amok. In Salem, OR there's a high school with the mascot "Royal Scots." It carries a sword and the principal wants to ban it along with textbooks, library books, encyclopedias, and dictionaries which contain images of swords and guns. Talk about making history incomplete!!!

And in sports, we have the names offensive to indians: Cleveland Indians, Atlanta Braves and Washington Redskins.... never ends.

[Melz]

A local University here (Miami of Ohio, in Oxford) were called the Redskins when my mom attended there. They were forced (by local Indian groups if I recall) to change their name and mascot. They used to do that tomohawk chop as well, but no longer. I don't even know what they are called now, Redhawks perhaps? It is a shame when a group of people with no association with the school have such an influence.

[DoctorDoom]

Okay, folks, time to cool down. I downloaded the PDF file of the April 8, 2005 issue (http://www.fairport.org/fhs/HOGAN4-8.pdf) of the Lampion (all 2,196,337 bytes of it), and located the article in question. It's in a section of the file called "The Lampoon", and shares space with "It’s What You Look Like On The Outside That Counts", "Civil Conflict Grips Social Studies Department", and "New Study Shows German Language Makes No Sense". Here's the whole "article".

Flea Made New FHS Mascot
by Lexi G.

In the last few years there has been much debate over the Fairport High School Mascot, “The Raider”. Originally “The Raider” featured a pirate with a knife, dripping with blood, in its mouth. This version of “The Raider” proved too gruesome for our good-natured community, and so the blood was removed.

Then after the outbreak of violence in the country, administrators thought it best to remove the violent nature of our mascot, removing the knife from “The Raider’s” mouth. Now, in 2005, the school board has taken it one step further.

They have decided that “The Raider” promotes piracy, and bad fashion, and should be promptly replaced as the school’s mascot. After much deliberation, and endless arguing, Fairport High School's new mascot will be…. *drum roll*…. “The Fairport Flea”. All walls which once bore “The Raider” shall be repainted with “The Flea”.

“Fairport Fleas, Once a Flea Always a Flea! It had a nice ring to it, and absolutely no negative connotation,” says Bernard Insectica, a FCSD board member who proposed the change. “This mascot will give students an adequate role model and will in no way encourage violence.” Insectica went further to express that fleas, like Fairport’s students can never do anything alone and need the basic infrastructure of the community to support them. This sense of community, he states, “Is an important aspect of life that the students would do well to learn, and with a positive role model like the Flea, educating the students will be more possible than ever before.”

The school board is currently holding a contest among the district's kindergarteners to design a logo, a song, and a corresponding costume for our new mascot.It's the FHS equivalent of the Onion. However, the non-parody parts of the issue indicate that the area is indeed infested with liberaloonies, which are far worse than fleas.

[Melz]

Thanks for clearing that up. had me worried that a school would actually call itself the Fleas. I mean that was pretty much a giveaway that it couldn't be true, but nice to have it cleared up :)