SALT LAKE CITY (ABC 4 News) - A few days ago the Canyons School District selected a Charger – or war horse – to be the mascot for the new Corner Canyon High School when it opens in the fall of 2013. But a lot of future students, 23 percent to be exact, had selected the Cougar as a mascot. Today, the school district tells ABC 4 News that a story going around the nation about why that didn’t happen isn’t completely true.
“There is a lot of power in the social media.” Jennifer Toomer-Cook, the spokeswoman for Canyons School District, knows that all too well. And she says the district is getting all the attention it can deal with right now. “I certainly didn’t expect to wake up to have Yahoo sports covering this. But it is what it is.” Toomer-Cook is referring to the stories like this
Huffington Post story, "COUGAR MASCOT VETOED FOR CORNER CANYON HIGH SCHOOL FOR BEING OFFENSIVE TOWARD WOMEN," or this
Yahoo sports story, "New School Can’t Be Cougars Because Middle Aged Women Might Be Offended.”“I think this is silly.” Draper resident Cindy Warner can’t believe anyone would confuse or associated a four legged animal prowling the mountains with a human on the prowl for younger men. “I just don’t think that would be an issue.”
So, how did that even come up? Toomer-Cook says when the school board was deciding on a mascot someone mentioned that some people might make a cougar comparison. “It was part of the input, but not the only input and not the keystone input.” She went on to says the real reasons the school board decided against the cougar mascot. One, the school colors, blue, white and silver had already been chosen. And to make the mascot a cougar would be too much like BYU – which could cause a rivalry. And, the other reason, three high schools in Utah already are the cougars. One of those schools is just down the road in Kearns.
Toomer-Cook says this decision had nothing to do with cougars, and everything to do with being unique. And that’s something folks around here – like high school student Blaire Thomas - seem to like. “A mascot is a big deal and Chargers sounds cool.”
The district says it took hundreds and hundreds of comments about the school’s colors and the mascot before making a decision. While the student vote on the colors was used, the mascot vote took a back seat to the public and school board discussions.
