A San Diego highschool is scrapping a mascot that’s stood for almost seven many years after California lawmakers expanded a statewide ban on Native American-themed group names.
The San Diego Unified Faculty District voted on Tuesday to alter Clairemont Excessive Faculty’s “Chieftains” nickname to “Captains,” citing a 2024 regulation that prohibits public faculties from utilizing phrases together with “Chiefs” and “Chieftains” beginning July 1.
The brand new identify will take impact within the 2026–27 college 12 months, with a multi-year rebranding effort to comply with.
Whereas the nickname change will start this fall, the complete rebrand is anticipated to take as much as three years to finish because the campus phases out the “Chieftains” identify throughout uniforms, athletic amenities, signage, printed supplies and the fitness center flooring.
Current gear and branding shall be changed on a rolling foundation to handle prices, which means visible remnants of the outdated identification may stay in place in the course of the transition.
The choice adopted an almost yearlong assessment that started final April, when the district launched a proper course of to adjust to the state’s expanded mascot ban.
A ten-person naming committee made up of scholars, workers, neighborhood members and district representatives hosted six city halls, opened submissions for brand spanking new identify concepts and carried out a neighborhood survey that drew greater than 500 responses.
California lawmakers first stepped into the mascot debate in 2015, when then-Gov. Jerry Brown signed Meeting Invoice 30 banning public faculties from utilizing the time period “Redskins,” efficient in 2017.
The measure made California the primary state within the nation to ban that nickname in Okay-12 faculties.
The hassle widened dramatically in 2024, when Gov. Gavin Newsom signed Meeting Invoice 3074, increasing the prohibition to incorporate phrases akin to “Apaches,” “Braves,” “Chiefs” and “Chieftains.”
The regulation takes impact July 1, 2026, and applies to public faculties statewide.
Beneath the statute, faculties can retain a prohibited identify provided that they safe written consent from a neighborhood federally acknowledged tribe. Faculties operated by tribes are exempt.
Campuses that fail to conform may face penalties beneath the state’s uniform grievance procedures.
The laws has already prompted a wave of modifications throughout Southern California.
In Orange County, Fullerton Union Excessive Faculty in Fullerton is retiring its longtime “Indians” nickname and can develop into the “Purple Hawks” starting within the 2026–27 college 12 months.
In San Bernardino County, Alta Loma Excessive Faculty in Rancho Cucamonga dropped the “Braves” and adopted the “Lions” after a neighborhood assessment course of.
In Los Angeles County, William S. Hart Excessive Faculty in Santa Clarita changed the “Indians” with the “Hawks” forward of the brand new regulation’s deadline.
And in Santa Fe Springs, Santa Fe Excessive Faculty — lengthy often known as the “Chiefs” — has launched a proper course of to pick a brand new nickname in response to the state mandate, although a alternative has not but been finalized.
