Mt. Diablo district approves retiring Concord High School’s ‘Minutemen’ mascot

CONCORD – The Mt. Diablo Unified School District Governing Board voted 4-1 Wednesday to retire the “Minutemen” mascot at Concord High School and adopt a new mascot.

The suggestion for the new mascot name for the school is the “Bears”.

The school board last voted on this measure at a June 28 meeting, which failed 2-2.

In 2021, the Mt. Diablo Unified School District Governing Board updated their mascot policy, requiring schools to choose non-human mascots in the case that the current one is deemed offensive or insensitive. The school board said that a student committee was formed last year at Concord High School and that students chose to replace the school’s mascot, which depicts a Revolutionary War militia member holding a musket, with a bear.

During the board meeting, some members of the public questioned whether changing the mascot was a good use of funds. Lynette Dashner, who graduated from Concord High in 1987, said the board should focus on refurbishing the campus before they spend money on changing the mascot.

“Last time I was up here, I asked you guys if you have gone by Concord High to actually look at the school? Did you see any plants or flowers besides dirt, rocks and weeds? You want to spend millions of dollars to change the name of a mascot when our school is in complete disarray,” Dashner said.

According to documents presented at the board meeting, the cost of changing the school’s mascot will be $200,000.

Student trustee Susanna Barrios said that many students she talked to did not even know what a minuteman was and given that the school is majority Latino, did not feel represented by the mascot.

“I want to change the mascot to something that they have pride in and trust in,” said Barrios.

Board member Debra Mason suggested that in the future, the board adopt a policy that would require that school uniforms do not include a picture of the mascot, but just the name of the school to save costs in the case that there are future mascot changes. Mason was the only board member to vote against the resolution.

Another member, Linda Mayo, praised the students who helped organize the campaign to change the mascot. Mayo, who voted no to the resolution during the last vote, voted this time to approve the measure.

The school district has one year to make the change.