WYOMING, Mich. (WOOD) — At Lee High School football games, you can't miss it: 'Rebel Country' painted in big print on the back of the stadium score box. But now, the Godfrey-Lee school board in Wyoming is considering changing the longtime mascot.
Godfrey-Lee Public Schools Board of Education President Eric Mockerman told 24 Hour News 8 officials recently created a strategic plan and decided it was time to examine the future of the Rebels mascot.
"We thought, 'Yeah, it's time to have a conversation about this,'" Mockerman said. "We want to again take the pulse of our community, take the pulse of our stakeholders and see does it fit with who we are now?"
While many alumni have a strong connection to the mascot, Mockerman said the board has heard concerns from others who associate it with the Confederate South and slavery and believe it's racially insensitive.
24 Hour News 8 flipped through old Lee High School yearbooks from the 1960s and '70s that showed students flying the Confederate flag and wearing it on their uniforms. Mockerman said the school stopped allowing that in the late '80s amid growing concerns.