Pioneering Pupils Want Name That’s a Bit Wilder

Pioneer Middle School has been open barely three months, but it didn’t take long for students to get fed up with being called the Pioneer Pioneers, on Pioneer Road.

“It sounds real lame,” 13-year-old Asra Aziz said. “There are way too many pioneers.”

The mascot name has got to go, according to many students, who are urging the Tustin Unified School District Board of Trustees to allow them to be called the Pioneer Wildcats.

The school board will vote on the name change Dec. 13.

Eighth-grader Sara Nielsen, president of the school’s associated student body, said she and the rest of the leadership group wanted to change the mascot since the first week of school.

Students from neighboring schools have also taken note of the school’s repetitive name.

“They would tease us about our name and we figured that’s not fair,” Sara, 13, said.

The mascot was chosen last school year when students from surrounding elementary schools, including Peters Canyon and Tustin Ranch, were surveyed and Pioneers was selected as the most popular mascot name. Current middle school students, however, were not included in the survey. In October, the leadership team decided to take a vote, choosing from three mascot names that reflected the school’s surrounding hilly terrain, horse trails and a nearby street name: the Pioneer Wildcats, Palominos and Patriots. The Wildcats name won with 29 votes, Patriots received 13 votes and Palominos received five votes.

“I think it sounds good,” said Yolanda McDonald, 13. “It goes with our surroundings. We are kind of in the mountains.”

Principal Adele Heuer said the proposed name has been very well received by the whole student body and that the name-changing process has been a good lesson for the leadership students.

“I encourage them because that is what they are learning, self-governance,” she said. “It’s been a real good experience for them. This is their school and they are creating tradition.”

Katie O’Hern, a 12-year-old seventh-grader, said she is glad the board will consider the name change and hopes the school can kick off its mascot illustration contest as soon as possible. “It shows the school board cares about what we say,” Katie said. “This will give us an identity. This will show we are different than anyone else.”

Marissa Espino can be reached at (714) 966-5879.