LANSING, Mich. — The future of J.W. Sexton High School’s new mascot is still up in the air.
Students and community members can’t come to an understanding with the district’s board on which mascot better suits the school.
Back in July, the district received funding to rebrand Sexton’s Big Reds mascot by the Native American Heritage Fund. From there, the district allowed students, alumni and community members to vote on a new mascot.
The winner was J Dubbs, but earlier this month, the board decided to go with Scorpions, which was the runner-up.
“My concern with the J Dubb mascot is what are we going to put on the new shirts that I’ll be ordering immediately," said Lansing Board of Education President Gabrielle Lawrence. “Are we going to put J.W. Sexton face? I just don’t know.”
While alumni and community members were upset about the voting, a lot of them were focused on how the students were feeling.
“Disenfranchising young people at that age can ruin their whole outlook on their voting, their voices, and it's definitely something that’s becoming a problem in our whole community,” said youth advocate Michael Lynn Jr.
The board decided to table the discussion until Dec. 1. We reached out to the board to see if they wanted to give comment before then, and we were told they did not want to comment.
