Whiteland Community High School students won’t stop being known as the Warriors, but the logos on their jerseys and inside their school could gradually change in the coming years.
Clark-Pleasant officials have been discussing a gradual re-branding of the school in the future.
The reasons range from a move toward a cleaner logo to ongoing discussions about racial issues that schools across the nation are having, Clark-Pleasant Superintendent Patrick Spray said.
School officials aren’t pushing to repaint the walls or replace all the athletics gear to be rid of the Warrior head logo immediately, Spray said. For example, the high school athletics hallway has 80 to 90 Warrior heads, and no one is planning to get rid of those right now, he said.
But, as new uniforms and gear are ordered, the school could look at a simpler design.
That could include using the letter “W” instead, similar to the “F” that Franklin Community High School changed to in recent years, Spray said.
“It’s like when a soup can changes its label,” Spray said. “The cleaner lines and more simplistic logo sometimes works better.”
Spray expects the school will use a combination of logos in future years, he said. Teams or clubs that want to continue using the Warrior logo on spirit wear are welcome to do so, he said.
He compared the change to the school’s gradual addition of the color orange into its school colors. The school’s colors are white and blue, but orange has been added as an accent color over the years, he said.
The school also has, over the years, moved away from some other images, such as hatchets or spears, that depict violence by American Indians, Spray said.
How they depict American Indians also is an issue the school district needs to be aware of, he said.
Discussions about racial issues in schools is and should be an ongoing issue, Spray said.
No one should be made to feel uncomfortable, and discussions about how schools and teams are portraying American Indians are coming up nationwide, he said. Many college and high school teams that had been using American Indian-themed logos have changed them over the past couple of decades.
“We want cultural awareness. We have a diverse population. So we want that to be at the forefront,” Spray said.
