Hart High School students and staff are scheduled to vote on the new mascot beginning of next week. 

Hart High school students and staff are scheduled to be voting on the new mascot beginning Monday through the end of the week, according to Hart officials. 

In December 2023, Hart’s mascot committee narrowed in on three possible mascots, the Hawks, Bison and Trailblazers, for the school’s ASB to vote on in replacement of the Indians.

A resounding yes was given to the Hawk by the ASB and rather than just Hart, the Hawk was proposed for a school-wide vote by the mascot committee. 

To preserve the school’s heritage while still having the opportunity to introduce a new logo or mascot in the future if needed, the mascot committee decided to keep the current Hart logo and artwork with the ‘H’ and feathers.

“It has been two and half years since this issue has been brought up, and it’s time we hear from the people again, it is not a trivial issue, there never was a Hart mascot. You have completely messed this project up. The issue is not the mural, the issue is the so-called mascot,” said Rudy Ortega Jr., representing the Ferdenandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians at a recent William S. Hart Union High School District governing board meeting.

A Hart alumnus and mother of a current student at Hart High School, Jennifer Saldivar, began a petition on change.org last year in order to keep the Indian as Hart’s mascot. 

In the 1990s, when Hart received similar controversy, then principal Laury Strauss worked on sensitizing the mascot around campus and went as far as to write a letter to the Central Coast Association of American Indians. 

Strauss’s intention with the Indian mascot was not to demean them but to use the mascot as a symbol of bravery, adventure, courage, and strength.

Strauss even made it a point that there would be no caricatures of Native Americans portrayed in any publications or any extra-curricular groups, and they’d only use feathers on the logo.

Additionally, Strauss and the rest of the school did not condone stereotypical chants or actions from the school.

It is unknown if the current petition by Saldivar holds any weight in the decision to change or not to change the mascot.

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