Students react to Wayland High School removing spear from logo

Credit: Joyce Wu

Owen Smith, Freshman
“I’m gonna be honest with you, this logo, I don’t know about it. I feel like this school is like, ‘oh no, Native Americans,’ but it’s just a spear. It’s a spear, you know? It’s just a spear, it doesn’t mean anything else, it’s just a spear. It’s all it means. Maybe that helmet’s alright, but that torch just looks like one of those cone cups that you get at the water bubbler. Don’t change it.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Elizabeth Greenberg, Junior
“I think the nationwide effort to be less offensive towards groups is definitely a good movement, but I think here at the high school to have the spear as the logo is not necessarily a bad thing. I don’t think that is offensive. I mean granted I’m not Native American, so I can’t say, but I feel like this school is making a bigger deal out of something that isn’t necessarily as offensive as a football team like the Redskins. I think that if we have to replace the new logos they’re not bad alternatives, but some of them don’t really make sense. Like to be the Warriors, but have the torch doesn’t really make that much sense.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Gabby Fargnoli, Sophomore
“I think it’s an unnecessary issue. I don’t think anyone had a negative connotation to it or any kind of racial connotation, it was just a general image for our school.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Matt Clayton, Junior
“I don’t know. I’m a track athlete, and I understand that to football players, the logo means a lot, and there are definitely sports [teams] that are represented by the logo more. But personally, I really couldn’t care less. [For the new logos], I like the one with the torch better because I feel like different sports can use it. I feel like the football helmet, that’s sort of singling out one sport, for just like the football team, but rather if it was Wayland with a torch, I feel like different sports can use that. But I don’t really think one is better than the other.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Caroline Raymond, Freshman
“I don’t really like any of the [new] logos. They’re not really that cool, and I liked the old one. I heard about the feathers and how the feather is offensive, but I don’t know. I don’t know how people feel – I don’t see how it’s offensive right now, but I guess if I heard someone else’s [differing] point of view it could change my mind. But as of now I don’t really see it as offensive.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Peter Tsipis, Senior
“Me personally, I think getting rid of the spear is kind of stupid. I understand like the [teams] in Natick that were called the “Red Men,” and they changed to the “Red Hawks,” which makes sense because having a logo called the “Red Men” is kind of similar to the Washington Redskins, which is a bit iffy. But we’re called the Warriors, and all we had was a spear with a feather on it, and the idea of saying that it is racist or culturally insensitive to the Native Americans, I think that’s kind of stupid. But if we were to get rid of the spear, I think the two options they gave us not only are kind of dumb because it’s a torch that looks like a traffic cone and a medieval helmet, and they insisted on getting the ugliest shield in the background possible and used to most generic font, so personally, I don’t see the point of hiring a graphic designer to make those two awful logos when, if you walk down the hallway, you can clearly see there are people who are capable of drawing very nice things. So I think they should’ve had students draw their own logos, then maybe have a graphic designer touch it up. But honestly, I think it’s dumb that they’re getting rid of the spear, but I really don’t think there’s any way the spear will ever come back. I think there just isn’t gonna be another spear. But if the spear is gone, honestly, why can’t we have something that is cooler than a torch or a medieval helmet?”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Michael Lampert, Sophomore
“I think it’s really disappointing. The spear has been a big tradition, especially with me and my family. I love the arrow, it represents Wayland and everything. And no, I don’t like the new logos, absolutely not. I think the change just shouldn’t be a thing. A lot of schools have much worse things than an arrow, and we’re being looked at badly because of an arrow, which I think is ridiculous.”

Credit: Joyce Wu

Coach Parseghian, wellness director
“I’m for the spear. I understand that there are some other mascots out there that are much more offensive than what we have. I feel like the only offensive part of ours is maybe the feathers because it represents Native American history and all that, so I would be willing to take the feathers off and go with a Roman spear or something like that, some other form of a spear. But to be honest, I don’t like the two that we were proposed at advisory the other day. I sat down with Mr. Rollins last year, and we went through a bunch of mascots in Massachusetts. There are still a bunch of headdresses, or faces of Indians still out there, on I believe 35 schools in Massachusetts. So the fact that we don’t have the headdress or the face of a Native American, it was just a spear, and the feathers were what [were offensive], then all right, let’s take the feathers off, and let’s go with some other kind of spear. Then people say ‘that’s a weapon, that shouldn’t be used…’ It’s sports. I disagree with that part. So if it’s really just about the Native American imagery on it, I say take the feathers off, don’t go with the arrowhead, which is kind of what the head of the spear is, and go with a different kind.”