Students Prevail in Fight to Wear Devil Emblem

Mission Viejo High School students have a First Amendment right to wear a disputed devil logo on T-shirts and caps on campus, Saddleback Valley Unified School District officials told parents Monday.

District lawyers said that forcing students to cover the scowling devil logo could be a violation of constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression.

“If they want to wear the hat, let them wear the hat,” said Mission Viejo High School Principal Robert Metz. “We need to teach the kids that they do have the right of expression, and that needs to be protected. It’s time to put this all behind us.”

Although Mission Viejo High School’s nickname is the Diablos--which means the devils in Spanish--school administrators banned the grim-faced mascot in 1986 after receiving complaints from parents with fundamentalist Christian beliefs.

When students last fall began displaying the unauthorized logo, Metz and other school officials asked them to remove or cover the logo, Metz said. Parents, however, became agitated over the issue because, they said, school officials threatened students with suspension for wearing the image--a charge that Metz denies.

Monday afternoon, students and the parents who complained about the issue said they are happy that the right to wear the logo has been restored.

Sophomore Todd Keneley celebrated the decision Monday by wearing a football T-shirt bearing the devil logo to school.

“It’s really been a great day,” he said. “Even if (the devil mascot) is not officially going to be back, students will have the right to use it as we wish. But I think it’s going to be back for us one way or the other.”

In 1986, the student body voted to change the school’s mascot to a bulldog. However, the popular devil logo, which through the years appeared on everything from football helmets to yearbook covers, was not on the ballot drawn up by school administrators.

The bulldog logo has not proven popular with students and, Keneley said, most would like to see it go.

“The drooling bulldog is doomed, I think,” he said. “We’re going to put him back in the doghouse. We’re sending him to the pound.”

Members of the Committee for Concerned MVHS Parents said they will appear at a district board meeting tonight and ask the board to permit a student-body referendum on the devil mascot.

Committee member Sandie Gonzales said the group will also seek reinstatement of two school coaches who resigned this year. One of them, football coach Mike Rush, has said that pressure from administrators to enforce a no-devil logo policy contributed to his decision to step down.

“We’re getting there one issue at a time,” Gonzales said.

Ann Chlebicki, assistant superintendent of instruction, said the district will probably ask the school’s student government to consider what the school mascot should be.

Metz indicated that Rush would not be returning as varsity football coach. The deadline for applying for the position passed April 2 and interviews for the job will be conducted this week.

The principal added that he would like nothing better than to see the entire logo dispute resolved.

“Our purpose at this particular point in time is to educate our kids,” he said. “There’s too much time and effort being spent on this.”