By: Sang Kyeong Choi, Staff Writer
“Home of the Vikings”. At Mills, we see these words plastered repeatedly on the walls at school, on posters, and on sports uniforms and school merch. In Fall of 1958, at the time of the school’s founding, students at Mills voted on the school colors and mascot. Since that day Mills has been recognized district wide by its red and gold colors and long bearded, horned-hat-wearing Viking mascot.
Like professional sports teams, high school sports teams are often identified by their school colors and mascots; there are the San Mateo Bearcats, the Capuchino Mustangs, and Burlingame Panthers. By definition, a mascot is a person or thing that is used to symbolize a particular event or organization. The Mills Viking is within these guidelines for what a mascot is. Recent controversy has brought up the questions, “Does the Viking properly represent Mills High School? Does Mills High School’s mascot need to change?” In my opinion changing the mascot is not necessary.
Those who disagree claim that the reason they want to change the mascot is tied to vikings’ history of being violent conquerors and unrelated to Mills ideals. Also, there are other schools that have viking mascots which may cause confusion.
At the middle school I attended, the mascot was a pine tree. Of course, a pine tree doesn’t fit the description of a perfect student of that school, however, it has become an identifier of the school. This shows that mascots don’t need to just be mirrors of the ideals of a school but rather simply something that identifies the school. The students at my middle school aren’t trees and the students at Mills aren’t Vikings, these mascots are simply symbols.
Despite some people’s concern that the violent history of Vikings reflects upon Mills, this doesn’t seem to be a connection that many students make. Eduardo Galindo(11) shared that he had no problem with our current mascot and when asked ‘What do you know about Vikings, historically?’ He answered, “Not a lot, they were pretty tough.”. He went on to say he doesn’t think of the history of vikings being associated with Mills, just the image of a viking.
It’s also important to keep in mind that if the original mascot is changed to a new mascot people will be confused. Changing the mascot that has been a constant since 1958 will create some confusion for school members and people who know Mills High School. It will be useful to keep the original mascot so that people could remember Mills High School better. Also changing the mascot means changing what symbolizes the organization. It can shape the image of the school differently.
Organizations need to be together in order to not weaken but rather continue to improve and a mascot is one of the reasons people unite together. A mascot provides entertainment and encouragement for the students, staff, and teachers. It is always included in campus and community events.
A mascot is a unifying factor but it can easily become a subject of arguments. While interviewing students around campus, I noticed that there is one thing they can’t seem to agree on. When asked “If our mascot was no longer the Viking, what would you want it changed to?”, the students interviewed had a variety of answers. Peter Alhaj(11) said lion and Eduardo Galindo said he couldn’t decide.
If the mascot changes, many people will be disappointed at the organization for changing the promised symbol. Mills High School’s mascot the Viking has no short history. It has been tied to the school for 65 years. It was voted on by students and there has been no push back against it for decades.
A mascot change will have a lot of negative effects that in my opinion aren’t worth the trouble that Mills will have to go through to rebrand. The current mascot has become synonymous with Mills, it has withstood decades and can continue its purpose of representing Mills for decades more.
