By Staff
Tim Cottrell
After several weeks of confusion over Escambia County High School's mascot situation, an investigation by the Advance has not yet fully uncovered the issue.
After some reader mail and questions, the Advance contacted ECHS principal Jerry Smith to find out what he thought about the school changing its mascot.
"We're not changing the mascot," Smith replied on Wednesday.
Further questioning of coach Brown on Friday answered a few critical questions.
"We are in the middle of an effort to get the name changed," Brown said. "Its a community effort. We'd like to see a mascot with more positive connotations than a devil. Devils only make you think negative. There's been a lot of negative publicity about our school. But there has also been a lot of positive, and we don't think people are focusing on that at all."
Brown produced a petition he had prepared, which wished to change Escambia County High School's mascot from the Blue Devils to the Saints. The petition had not yet circulated.
"This has been under discussion for a while," Brown said. "The community brought this to me and I agreed with it. We just think it will be good for the kids."
Upon hearing of the petition, Smith said he was unconcerned with the issue.
"It doesn't bother me at all," Smith said. "If they want to change the name its out of my hands. They'd have to go through the board to do that."
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