Bedeviling Image : Group Seeks to Rid High School of Mascot, Nickname

For 20 years, Apple Valley High School has rallied behind a mascot with a smirking red face, horns and pitchfork--the school’s beloved Sun Devil.

The Sun Devil image appears on campus stationery, class rings, marching band uniforms and the gymnasium wall. Drill team members are called “demonettes.”

Now, a group of parents, describing themselves as concerned Christians, is lobbying to get rid of the image on the grounds that it is a bad influence on students and a ghastly reminder of the “ruler of hell.”

“I am a Christian and it is against my beliefs,” said Carolyn Reel, 49, a housewife whose 17-year-old son, Ryan, is a senior at the school. “Besides, we already have drugs, alcohol and suicide at our school,” said Reel, a leader in the anti-Sun Devil movement, “the kids need a positive influence.”

“Twenty years ago it would not have been worth even thinking about,” added her husband, Milton, an airline pilot. “But today, with all the talk of Satanism--from the Night Stalker, who apparently studied it, to rock videos, some of which depict an underworld--it seems appropriate to remove the damn thing.”

“I would not like my daughter to become a demonette,” added Apple Valley housewife Patty Stow, 36, whose daughter, Eleana, 14, attends the school. “I just don’t like the implication of the word.”

The parents group has been complaining to school officials about the Sun Devils name for two years, since the high school yearbook featured a cover emblazoned with a painting of a smirking devil surrounded by orange and yellow flames. Now, boosted by the knowledge that similar campaigns forced changes at two other Southern California schools with devil mascots, the parents have collected 1,300 signatures on petitions and plan to take their demands to the Victor Valley Union High School District board tonight.

According to Principal Tony Balsamo, student body president Aaron Watson, 17, and others at the campus, the anti-Sun Devil faction has little support at school, located in the high desert about 80 miles northeast of Los Angeles.

“A number of students have said we should fight this,” said Balsamo, sitting in an office festooned with devil dolls, banners and artworks. “. . .Nobody has proven to me that this thing has had a negative effect on students. I’m not making any recommendations to the school board about changing our mascot of 20 years.”

Mission Viejo High School in Orange County and Palm Desert High School in Riverside County yielded to similar campaigns recently.

In March, 1985, Mission Viejo High School ended weeks of debate with Christian fundamentalists by swapping its logo of a devil with a pitchfork for one of a bulldog. In a compromise with the offended Christians, however, the school held on to its nickname, Diablos.

In November, Palm Desert High School was pressured into changing its nickname from Sun Devils to Aztecs after it was suggested that the old nickname was tantamount to an endorsement of Satan.

“We tried to counter (the argument) with terms that are not Satanic like devil’s food cake, deviled eggs, a devil of a time, “ said Frank Motta, Palm Desert’s dean of educational services. “It didn’t work.”

In a poll of students, Aztecs was the winner over Suns, Lancers, Diamondbacks and Rebels, Motta said, even though “in my research on Aztecs I found out they definitely went in for human sacrifices.”

As it stands, the devil theme is common at schools across the nation. There are Red Devils, Blue Devils, Sun Devils and Dust Devils as well as a host of Demons, including the Demon Deacons of Wake Forest University in Winston Salem, N.C.

The Arizona State Sun Devils will play in the Rose Bowl on New Year’s Day and the Pope plans to say Mass in Sun Devil Stadium in Tempe, Ariz., on Sept. 14, 1987.

Here in Apple Valley, the issue has been building for years.

Donna Davis, 39, a housewife from nearby Victorville who is one of those seeking a change in nickname, recently recalled with a shudder a 1983 basketball game between the Victorville High School Jack Rabbits and the Apple Valley High School Sun Devils.

“The kids went into a frenzy shouting ‘Devils! Devils! Devils!’ ” Davis recalled. “I looked down at the floor and there was the face of a smirking devil. I began to pray.”

Shirley Tinney, 37, whose 15-year-old daughter attends the school, said she joined the campaign because of a message received in prayer one summer day in 1985.

“The Lord put it in my heart that it was time for this thing to come to an end,” Tinney said. She added that the current push to change the image was actually “the hand of God making a move.”

At local churches and supermarket parking lots, members of the group have collected 1,300 signatures in support of the cause. They have the backing of Apple Valley’s two most famous residents, Roy Rogers and Dale Evans, who have suggested that the school adopt a more benign name such as “Sun Blazers.”

Rogers and Evans were unavailable for comment. But Francy Williams, general manager of the Roy Rogers and Dale Evans Museum in Apple Valley said, “They do not like the use of the word devil in any form because they are good Christians.”

Also on their side is Jack Thompson, 60, an insurance agent, who helped force Palm Desert High School to get rid of its Sun Devils name.

“That picture on the (Apple Valley) gym is of the devil of hell,” Thompson said. “We’ll go along with it if they put a picture of Jesus on the wall.”

When it was suggested that Jewish students and other non-Christians might find that offensive, Thompson said, “Well, the Jews don’t have Jesus, but they have God. Put a picture of God up there.”

When asked what God looks like, he asked, “What’s the percentage of Jews in Apple Valley anyway?”

“It is not a question of how many Jews there are here,” said Aaron Watson, Apple Valley High School’s student body president. “This country was not designed so that someone could force their views on someone else. . . . For them to say it is right to neglect other religions at this school is wrong.”

“They say that thing will corrupt us,” added Gio Chiarella, 17, standing in front of the Sun Devil image on the gymnasium wall. “What is dangerous to me are people who are paranoid and looking past real problems like drugs, poverty, broken homes.

“If they win, all they will do is erase a symbol and not reach a single student with a real problem.”

But Julie Donaldson, 17, one of eight students who attended an informal bible study held during a lunch break, disagreed.

“They expect us to come to school and be positive,” Donaldson said. “But why have the devil when you could have something else represent us? I don’t care if it is cute. I have no desire to say I’m proud to be a devil.”