Kalama, Toledo must change mascots as invoice heads to governor’s desk | Schooling

Rust previously said that because the school district doesn’t include the current Cowlitz tribal areas located in Ridgefield, the school’s mascot will have to change despite the fact that the Cowlitz tribe approves the school’s use of the current Dreamcatcher logo – a stylized T. draped to the side in a circle with feathers.

Rust said the district is working on setting focus group meeting dates to develop a new mascot and “mostly just helping the community for lack of a better time to mourn the loss of a mascot.”

“It will take a while for people to come to terms with this and talk about what we’re going to lose, but also what we’re going to keep,” said Rust.

A graduate of Toledo High School wears a letterman jacket as of July 2020.

Courtney Talak

For example, he said he was reminding people that all of the art will be preserved in the school honoring the Cowlitz tribe. The changes will affect signs and possibly some uniforms, though Rust said he didn’t know if uniforms still use older logos. The soccer team’s jerseys just say Toledo, Rust said so they don’t have to change.

The previously planned update to the high school gym floor will leave the room with no offensive or soon-to-be-banned logos, Rust said. While the focus groups work on the renaming, the district will remove the feathers from its current logo and leave it as a simple “T” in a circle until a final selection is made.

“We’ve been the Indians of the Toledo School District for 100 years, and it’s interesting that we’re going to change that as we celebrate our centenary,” said Rust. “We will imagine what we will be in the next 100 years.”