Having Devil of a Time Breaking With Tradition

In an apparent show of defiance against a court order to change the name of their school team, only 500 of 3,000 Birmingham High School students cast ballots during two days of voting that ended Monday.

And, of those who did vote in the unusual campus election, many rejected the options of Blue Devils, Buccaneers, Breakers and Patriots, and instead penciled in the forbidden mascot.

“I don’t like any of the choices,” said Geri Hirsch, 14, of Tarzana. “We should stay with the Braves.”

Even the proposed new names seem to be engendering a measure of controversy, with some Christians objecting to the term “devil.”

Ordered by a federal court judge to change its 45-year-old Native American symbol--which Native American groups had argued perpetuated a stereotype--the Van Nuys school has been polling staff, parents and students throughout the month and is expected to reach a decision Wednesday.

It is the last to do so of four Southern California high schools ordered to change their team names. Last week, Gardena High School retired the Mohican and welcomed the Panther. Wilmington Middle School went from Warrior to Jaguar in March, and University High School replaced its own Warrior with the Wildcat in February.

“They’re dragging their feet,” said Eugene Herrod of Advocates for American Indian Children, one of the groups that lobbied for the ban. “The district gave them a whole year to change.”

But school officials, faced with a fierce backlash on the campus and among alumni, said they needed the time to make sure everyone felt involved in the process.

Birmingham alumni especially had rallied around the old mascot, modeled after Chief Pontiac from the Ottawa tribe in Michigan, challenging the district’s Sept. 8 ban on Native American mascots in schools. Supporters waged a lawsuit against the district, claiming that the policy violated their rights to free speech.

But in early April, a federal judge ruled in favor of the district and set in motion the series of votes.

Many students said Monday that they were displeased with the choices offered on the ballot, which were winnowed out of an earlier vote. A committee composed of students, a parent and a teacher wrote up descriptions, which were read over the public announcement system Friday and Monday before the lunch-hour balloting. Another committee is expected to pick the team name based on the advisory votes of students, parents and school employees.

Students were told that “Blue Devils” was the nickname given to dashing French forces during World War I, who were known for their dark blue berets and capes. The “Breakers’ are a “beautiful giant wave” with “the potential to be unpredictably violent.” A “Buccaneer” was part of “a group of wandering pirates who harassed the Spanish colonies.” And a “Patriot” harks back to the school’s past role as an Army hospital.

In a not-so-secret vote, students Monday chattered around the wooden ballot box set up in the Oral Arts room. “Why’d you vote for that one?” exclaimed one teenager, peering over his friend’s shoulder. Four lines of voters cleared out after 15 minutes.

Sirinya Tritipeskul, 16, of Van Nuys, found the debate “ridiculous,” and defiantly scrawled in “Braves” on her ballot. “Why are we changing the mascot after so many years?”

Others thought the $174,000 allotted from Los Angeles Unified School District general funds could be spent more productively on books or other equipment.

“We should keep the mascot and save the money. It’s a waste,” said Hasan Zaidi, 14, of Van Nuys, who voted for Blue Devils.

An impromptu exit poll showed Blue Devils and Breakers leading over Buccaneers and Patriots. But more than a dozen parents have called to protest the Blue Devil mascot, which they say goes against the Christian God, school officials said.

“My mom told me that she didn’t want me to be associated with the devil,” said Suzanne Cabral, 17, of Reseda, who cast her ballot anyway for the Blue Devil in youthful rebellion.

Like other students, Cabral wanted the alliteration of a mascot whose name began with the same letter as Birmingham High. “B and b go together,” she said.

Cheerleader Erin Wilson, 17, was more pragmatic than poetic. “It’s easier to change the cheers.”

The hardest change may be to the school’s property, which is emblazoned liberally with the tanned, beak-nosed and be-feathered head of Chief Pontiac. The deadline for selecting the new mascot is the end of the semester, in June, but the district granted more time to the school for its renovations.

“We know they can’t do it all over the summer,” said Asst. Superintendent Angie Stockwell. “They have to paint over everything: the gym, the drums, the walls.”