As you can see, a citizen showed up to protest the naming, and explained quite nicely why using Cavalier is not a good idea. He gave the history of the term and it’s meaning to the English and King Charles the 1st. Not only were Cavaliers English and from a different time period of the revolutionary war, it goes in the face of what Thomas Jefferson and our founding fathers stood for. That’s why when I was researching the mascot I rejected using Cavalier and Renegade instead.
What makes this even more troubling and ironic is that school districts across the state said that they didn’t think graduating seniors should have to take a civics/citizenship test because civics were taught throughout K-12. Really? Didn’t anyone in administration or the teacher faculty have the common sense to tell the students that ‘Cavalier’ was probably inappropriate due to it’s ties to the British and they should come up with another mascot? If we are teaching civics, wouldn’t these students, teachers and administrators know enough not to use ‘cavalier’ as a mascot for a school named after a revolutionary man?
From the very first task force meeting, to the bond elections (counted by district finance employees) to the purchase of the land and hiring of architects, this entire process has been a sh*t show of the highest level, it shouldn’t surprise us that they continue to ignore reason. This is what happens when governmental decisions are made behind closed doors by a select group of ‘Know-It-Alls.’
This is why they had to hire a former shoe salesperson as an administrator to manage a whopping 24 students at the Avera Academy. The more ‘Know-It-Alls’ the better education our kids are getting, yeah right.