Noa Greene-Houvras, Grade 12, Staff Writer
For decades, the topic of the High School of American Studies mascot has been long debated. However, at the spring fest celebration, a new mascot was unveiled: the raccoon! Common Sense reports on the school’s reaction.
Many students were perplexed at the choice of the new mascot.
Joe Shmoe(‘27) said he thought it could easily be made fun of by using trash metaphors.
He clarified saying “I don’t think our school’s teams are trash, I’m just worried a raccoon mascot will encourage that kind of trash talk.” He denied to comment about the irony of the phrase “trash talk.”
For now, HSAS will be representing the raccoons at sporting events.
Olivia Banes (‘25) said as an athlete she will continue to avoid the topic of the mascot. “I mean... It's not like we're going to start making raccoon sounds as a cheer.”
Other students were thrilled about the change, even if it was to a marsupial-like mammal. Alice Greely (‘26) led a campaign to change the mascot because she found it “offensive that it implied all senators are male.” When talking about this with the administration she argued that “it was so 2002 sexism.” Happy about the change, she seemed pretty sure the raccoon mascot was female, even if it is “hard to distinguish.”
The primary question being asked was: why the raccoon?
When Common Senses talked with the student body president, Abraham Lincoln (‘24) said that inspiration struck when raccoons infested the gym last year, climbing on the ceiling.
Saying that “something like that could only happen in a school like HSAS” he thought only a raccoon could fully embody the spirit of the once-called senators. And until it gets changed to another never-before-seen mascot, we'll just have to eat the other teams for trash dinner.
Raccoons are our new mascots, of course.