FLORENCE, Ky. – Boone County High School says it is phasing out its Mr. Rebel logo and will no longer use the Mr. Rebel mascot, but not because of the recent national rush to shed images of the Confederacy.
“This is not a new process and it has nothing to do with the nationwide efforts to remove symbols of the Confederacy,” Barbara Cain-Brady, spokesperson for Boone County Schools, said Thursday. “BCHS has been in the process of phasing out the Mr. Rebel image for almost two years now.
‘The gym floor was redone prior to last school year removing the Mr. Rebel image. The Mr. Rebel mascot will no longer be used and there are no plans to replace it. This is an ongoing process that will take some time to completely remove all the Mr. Rebel images in other places.”
Second-year principal Timothy Schlotman was the impetus for the change.
Schlotman, who has worked at BCHS for 32 years, said the mascot and logo depicting a Confederate general with a sweeping handlebar mustache conflicted with the school’s diversity. Boone County students represent 37 nationalities.
“During senior exit interviews, almost every senior mentions that one of the things they really like about Boone County High School is the diversity,” Schlotman said. “That doesn’t coincide with some uses of Mr. Rebel.”
The school is keeping the Rebels nickname and school colors – Columbia blue and gray, Schlotman said. He said the nickname derived from the 1955 movie “Rebel Without A Cause,” not from the term for Confederate Army soldiers.
Schlotman encouraged students to design the new school logo (pictured above).
RELATED: Students compete to create new logo for BCHS
“I spoke to the Site Based Decision Making Council and told them I’d like to use Mr. Rebel less and in talking of using that less, we thought about how we don’t have an identifiable logo," he said.
Schlotman hopes the new logo will become a more easily identifiable brand for the school and transcend all student teams, clubs and organizations, similar to Beechwood’s paw print and Cooper’s jaguar.
