Students Advocate Devil as Mascot but Only He Is Smiling

A smiling baby devil was overwhelmingly chosen as Mission Viejo High School’s new mascot, but many students and parents were far from happy Thursday and the long dispute over a devil logo appeared headed for the next school board election.

In a special election Wednesday, 76% of the campus voted for the friendly-looking devil emblem, but after the results of the tally were announced Thursday, students complained that the mascot does not look fierce enough.

They groused that the school should resurrect the meaner devil image that represented the school in the past, before the school board officials banned it in 1986 amid complaints by fundamentalist Christians in the community.

Said junior Blake Rennie, “In football games, you’re going to have a wimpy-looking devil on your helmet. You’ll have people laughing at us.”

And parents are likely to continue fighting over the issue. Some of them say the devil image depicts evil; others argue that students have the right to choose whatever mascot they want.

“We’re sure this issue is just starting anew and afresh,” said teacher Terry Sheppard, chairman of the 13-member committee that organized the election based on concepts submitted by students last spring.

“The Pandora’s box has been opened,” he said.

The new mascot won a decisive victory over four other logo candidates: a fire-snorting longhorn steer placed a distant second place with about 19% of the vote while a cartoon Tasmanian devil, a minotaur and a devil bulldog picked up only about 4% of the vote combined.

Of the 1,914 students and school employees eligible to vote, 64%, or 1,224, participated in the election, according to the League of Women Voters Orange Coast chapter, which was asked to oversee the election because emotions were running so high.

“Certainly any national candidate would consider that a resounding mandate,” said chapter President Evelyn Hintze.

Although school officials called on students and the community to unite behind the new mascot and move on to more important educational matters, the election has not eased controversy over the issue.

A group of parents who filed a lawsuit over the mascot issue in June said Thursday they will run candidates for two seats on the Saddleback Valley Unified School District Board of Education in November, 1994.

“The kids have made a change, now we’re going to make ours,” said parent Sandie Gonzales.

The suit claims that school officials violated students’ civil rights last year when they tried to stop students from wearing the banned devil emblem on caps and T-shirts.

And the Winner Is. . . A smiling baby devil is the new mascot at Mission Viejo High School. But many students prefer a meaner-looking creature, lke the sinister, fork-throwing devil popular on campus in early and mid-1980 s. Election results: Winning mascot: Baby devil: 76.4% of vote. Previous logo, banned in 1986. Long-horned steer: 18.8% Tasmanian devil: 2.4% Minotaur: 1.2% Devil dog: 1.2% Source: Mission Viejo High School