On Tuesday evening, during the Wapakoneta City School Board meeting, the floor was opened to hear from the public about the school’s mascot.
Following the announcement that the Washington Redskins would be changing their mascot, a discussion was prompted about Wapakoneta’s mascot of the same name. The superintendent announced shortly after that they would not be changing it. This then sparked alumni to speak out in favor of the name change. A petition was created, and several alums spoke to the board about why the name should be changed.
Superintendent Aaron Rex says the point of Tuesday’s meeting was to listen to the public. He says anybody was welcome to come to the meeting to discuss their views on either side.
He explains, "Well we’ve received just countless emails, messages, phone calls, and you know like I told you before, we’re always going to listen to what people say, and people have very different opinions on the matter. and people feel very strongly about keeping the redskin mascot in Wapakoneta, and so that’s been expressed to our school board. And I know they’ll make the best decision based upon what the people in our community want.”
Michelle Bellman, coordinator of Change the Name - Wapakoneta City Schools and creator of the petition explains, "We decided to write the petition after reading Aaron Rex’s statement because we realized that was an answer without a discussion. We thought that the petition would create the conversation for the community and alumni who might support the name change. Right now we have over 2,300 signatures, and so it showed that that conversation really needed to happen.”
She says the next step in their campaign would be for the Superintendent to respond to an email from the sitting chief of the Shawnee, Ben Barnes, to speak to the school board.
