Juanita High School alumni push for ‘Rebels’ mascot change

Students who attended Juanita High School are pushing the district and the school board to get rid of the Juanita "Rebels" mascot.

The students who are now in college started a petition a few days ago to get rid of the mascot.

“The mascot has racist connotations with the past,” said Jadyn Muralt, who graduated in 2019. “We’re not going to ignore that history. We’re refusing to ignore that was our mascot with racist connotations.”

More than 8,600 people signed a petition being circulated on social media to get rid of the “Rebels” mascot with links to the Confederacy and slavery.

This is the second time many of these students tried to get the school to change the mascot. In 2018 students created a petition to change the “Rebels" mascot. The student body voted and decided to keep it.

KIRO-7 spoke to the former student involved with the petition in 2018, who created the current petition. She didn't want to identify herself for fear of retribution. She said she had hundreds of messages from angry classmates over the first petition.

“I was attacked by the entire school, there were a few other black students who spoke out and they experienced the same thing,” the student explained Thursday.

She says the school district and school board should make the decision, not leave it to students.

“When you ask a predominantly white, generally sheltered audience to vote on something like this without educating them you know what response you are going to get. They knew what response they were going to get at the time of this vote the district and t he school didn’t care because they didn’t take the matter seriously. I think this just goes to show Juanita High School has a history of not taking anything that their black students say seriously.”

The four-year high school located in Kirkland is part of the Lake Washington School District. Other former students question why 14-year-olds were given the chance to vote on a decision that should have been handled at the administrative or district level.

“They say we were an open-concept school in the 1970s, had us ‘rebelling’ against educational and social norms. They pretty much use any excuse except for the racist one. We had a gray-suited soldier painted on our wall, the Confederate flag flown in the student section, the Confederate flag was on the cover of the yearbook,” said Juanita High graduate Anna Mayne.

This time students want the district and school board to get rid of the mascot.

“I think they need to address that it is racist; they have been complicit with racism. They can’t be so afraid of saying that word, and so scared of being called racist that they won’t do anything about it,” said former student Laila Albernaz.

KIRO-7 reached out to the Lake Washington School District about the push to change the mascot.

“The Board and district staff have received many emails and messages regarding the mascot, the past process that resulted in a continuation of the ‘Rebels’ mascot, and the need to reconsider that decision,” said Shannon Parthemer, director of communications Thursday. “The Board agrees that this is an issue that needs to be addressed, so this will be placed on the upcoming Board meeting agenda on June 22, 2020. Using our regular process, the Board and staff will review both the decision and related policy that may need to be revised. A decision will not be made at the June 22 meeting but a final decision will be made no later than the end of July.”

Alumni say the way to get current students involved is to have them help decide on the replacement.

“When the ‘Rebels’ mascot changes I will now be someone proud to have gone to Juanita High School and someone who has been a big part of this change,” said Muralt.

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