When I began teaching at Hays High School in 2008, the Confederate flag had just recently been removed from the school. It would not be officially banned from the school until 2012, and the fight song would not be changed until 2016. Of the flag, the song, and the mascot, only the mascot remains, and its presence is getting harder to defend with each passing day.
Generally the defenders of the name Rebel use one of three justifications.
“It’s tradition.” The best traditions honor those who partake in them. Ceremonies that cease to have meaning, or those that honor one group while demeaning another, are left behind. In 1968, the year that Martin Luther King was assassinated and the country was gripped by civil strife, Hays adopted Dixie, the Confederate flag, and the Rebel mascot to represent us. Many traditions from that era are gone now. For example, we have moved on from Slave Day, a tradition in Hays HS where students were sold at auction, and no one mourns its passing. Tradition alone is not reason enough to cling to the Rebel mascot.
