Confederate Mascot Wins OK of Quartz Hill Parents : Education: Survey at elementary school shows support for image of flag-toting soldier, which many call offensive.

The continued use of a Confederate soldier as mascot for Quartz Hill Elementary School was approved by a large majority of parents surveyed by the school, officials said Friday.

African American residents had written the school board last month in protest of the mascot, who is depicted carrying a Confederate flag. But based on the results of the survey, an advisory panel appointed by the board to look into the matter has recommended the mascot not be altered.

“The committee recommended that the mascot remain the same--no changes,” said Allan Sacks, assistant superintendent in the Westside Union School District, which includes Quartz Hill Elementary.

The final decision will be made by the Westside board, probably at a meeting in late July.

Several African American residents said Friday they hoped the board does not base its decision on the survey.

“I’m not surprised by the fact that you’d get results like this,” said William C. Taylor of Lancaster, an African American resident who wrote one of the letters asking for removal of Confederate symbolism at the elementary school.

“You’re asking them to give up something that they value. They’re not sensitive to the feelings of other people. I don’t think it’s racism. I think it’s that they don’t understand.”

In his letter, Taylor had described the Confederate flag as a “humiliating and offensive” reminder of slavery in the Southern states. Continuing to display this flag at a school, he wrote, “sends a clear message that the district condones what happened more than a century ago.”

The president of the Antelope Valley Branch of the NAACP, Lynda Thompson Taylor (who is no relation to William Taylor), said the Confederate symbols should be removed even “if one family, one person who goes to that school feels it’s an insult to them.”

She said the National Assn. for the Advancement of Colored People was monitoring the mascot issue but had not yet decided whether to organize a formal protest on the night the Westside school board decides its fate.

Earlier this year, the use of a similar mascot and other Confederate symbols were dropped at nearby Quartz Hill High School. The school’s nickname, the Rebels, was kept, however. The elementary school’s nickname is the Junior Rebels.

Images of the mascot at the school appear on an auditorium wall and on a sign in front of the school. District officials estimated it could cost more than $1,000 to alter these depictions.

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Although the 10 members of the committee wanted no immediate changes, “they did indicate that they would be amenable to changing the logo through attrition,” Sacks said. When the wall requires repainting, for example, the rebel mascot might be redrawn without Confederate symbolism under the committee’s plan, he said.

Christine LeBeau, president of the school board, said Friday that she could not predict how the board will vote on the mascot issue.

“Right now, I’m looking forward to getting more information from the committee, to seeing the actual results of the survey,” she said. “I personally don’t have enough information to make a decision.”