Add another mascot to the list of team names eliminated by political correctness: the cougar.
Utah’s Canyons School District has vetoed plans to name its new school’s teams “The Cougars” out of concern that the word could be offensive to women, Utah’s Fox-13 reported. This despite the fact that the future students of Corner Canyon High chose that mascot from of a list including the Chargers, Diamondbacks, Falcons and Raptors.
“We have received numerous e-mail messages and phone calls from parents and patrons in Draper asking us to reconsider the inclusion of ‘Cougars’ as a mascot option,” David S. Doty, superintendent of the Canyons School District, wrote in a memo to the Board of Education, according to CNN.
“Opposition to the ‘Cougars’ focuses on a concern that the mascot, combined with the school’s blue/white/silver color scheme, will be too similar to Brigham Young University. Many also have commented on the negative double entendre of the word ‘cougar,'” he added.
In recent years the term “cougar” has become a euphemism for an older woman who dates younger men.
Instead of “The Cougars,” The school district selected “The Charger” as the mascot of the Corner Canyon High School, set to open in 2013.
KSL Utah reported Thursday that district spokeswoman Jennifer Toomer-Cook has clarified that it was always the school district’s plan to make the final selection on the school’s mascot.
“That’s their responsibility to look at all of the input and make a decision,” Toomer-Cook said. Media reports, she added, are “making it sound like it was already Cougars and we ripped it away from them.”
According to Toomer-Cook, the goal was to “unite the community.”
“If there’s something out there that could divide it, let’s not go there,” Toomer-Cook said.