Some East students have complained about the lack of an on-the-field/court school mascot, which they said negatively impacts the school’s spirit during school sporting events, pep rallies, and competitions.

“A mascot should represent your school, your community, your sports, and also your integrity,” junior Erick Gomez said.

East did not always have this problem. According Dr. Greg Lamberty, Bennington High School principal and former East activities director, East had an inflatable mascot named Charlie the Chieftain, who represented students. Charlie was a blond, caucasian male with a backward baseball cap. He was used for sporting events and pep rallies to bring more school spirit and amplify the crowd’s energy.

In the past, East had a Native American mascot who held a mallet and wore a headdress of feathers. Having a Native American as a field mascot was determined to be offensive, and so Charlie was created to represent the students who attended East.

After years of use, the inflatable mascot fell into disrepair, and because of the poor condition of the costume, Charlie was retired, Lamberty said. When Charlie was active, though, students were the ones to wear the costume.

“People just volunteered. Students that were really involved, kind of like how they do the bibs or the overalls, but I think it was kind of that situation, so that was really involved with the student section,” instructor Patty Campbell, former East graduate, said.

Some students and staff agree that an addition of a mascot would be beneficial, but ideas on how to do it differ. One student, sophomore Teagan Hadley, wants to bring Charlie back, but add a few modifications, making the person inside the costume a mystery to be revealed at the end of the year.

“Charlie the Chieftain would be very popular, would boost Bellevue East High School, and would make all the students happy because the students have been talking about getting a mascot,” Hadley said.

Gomez also supports the renewal of Charlie the Chieftain. He feels that Charlie would improve the school’s reputation, as well as the energy.

“I feel it would bring a lot of people that graduated a long time ago a lot of memories. It would bring no disadvantages, except for a few people now if they don’t like him,” Gomez said.

Campbell was student at East when the inflatable was in use, and said she believes bringing back Charlie is a good idea. She relates Charlie’s costume to Little Red from the University of Nebraska, but with his clothes changed to purple and white. Campbell thinks that the crowd’s enthusiasm has decreased after the removal of the field mascot.

“It’s a bummer. I think we should have one,” Campbell said. “I mean, that just kind of encourages school spirit and gets students involved and I remember when we had him and he was at football games and we loved it because he was always down there with the cheerleaders and whatnot helping encourage school spirit.”

Other schools have successfully incorporated a field mascot, like the Thunderbirds from West. Their mascot gives them an advantage when competing against East. Some think that it’s unfair that a rival school gets a physical mascot when East doe not have one.

“The Thunderbirds have a mascot and it’s not cool that we don’t have a mascot because of

hashtag school rivalry,” Hadley said.

Addressing concerns, students said that they do not want to disrespect Native Americans, but would like to show appreciation for their school. Because the Chieftain is the official mascot for East, there are concern on how to represent students respectfully.

“I think you can look at anything and find a racial reason for something. I think if anybody looks hard enough they’re going to find a reason to be upset about it,” Campbell said.