The Ronald Reagan Purple Reign.
That’s one possible name for Bonneville’s unfinished high school. Other ideas include the Sterling Heights Yankee Doodles and the Black Canyon Golden Nuggets.
Yankee Doodles?
“(Those) are some of the more out-of-the-box suggestions we’ve received,” said Bonneville School District spokesman Phil Campbell.
On Wednesday, the Bonneville School Board voted to continue using a community advisory committee to filter through the roughly 1,800 name and mascot suggestions that flooded the district this week via phone calls and an online questionnaire.
The newly formed committee is one of the district’s answers to a social media outcry that broke out last week over a previously adopted name and mascot: Black Canyon Phantoms — which the district subsequently ditched in order to start the process over.
Patrons claimed a lack of public input in the previous naming process. They also argued that the acronym, BCHS, was reminiscent of a seven-letter derogatory term that rhymes with stitches.
So the district is tackling the naming process again — this time with more school board involvement and a greater emphasis on public input. Trustee Greg Calder will chair the committee, which is stocked with at least one patron from every zone in the district.
“I got a lot of emails, I got a lot of phone calls and I know we all did,” said Calder. “At the end of the day I have to defend what happens.”
The new committee will filter the droves of suggestions down to a manageable number. From there, another survey will be made available for students and patrons to vote for their favorites.
Here’s a list of some of the more traditional mascots submitted thus far:
- Falcons
- Lightning
- Lumberjacks
- Rattlers
- Hawks
Phantoms is still in the running and has a strong following of supporters, Campbell said.
The Board will make the final decision, most likely at its Nov. 2 meeting.
