Should The Wichita Falls High School’s Mascots Be Saved?

On Tuesday night, the Wichita Falls ISD school board met, and several students, parents, and alumni showed up, to make their voice heard. While issues such as substitute teacher pay increases were discussed, the hot topic of the night was whether or not the high school’s mascots should be changed. Many of those in attendance were upset about the possible change, and voiced their opinions before the board and the community.

With the creation of Legacy High School, and Memorial High School, and the repurposing of Rider High School and Hirschi High School into middle schools, the board is considering creating new team names and mascots for the two new high schools. The Coyote’s and The Raiders, which are the current high school mascots would be retired.

Some people are in support of the boards proposal of the changing of mascots. They argue that the new high schools should have their own new mascots, so that the kids can create their own memories and traditions. Others argue that creating new high school mascots would be erasing our towns history.

Get our free mobile app

Last December, a group created an online petition to save the high school’s old mascots and traditions. Texoma’s Homepage reported that it got over 2,500 signatures in just 48 hours. At the time of this writing over 8,000 have signed the petition. They are proposing that The Coyotes should be assigned to Legacy High School, and that the Raiders should go to Memorial High School. If you want to view or sign the petition, you can do so by clicking here.

Unfortunately, the board did not vote on the fate of the school mascots last night, leaving the controversial issue unresolved.