Morris mascot now the Warriors after school board vote

Morris Community High School will now be known as the Warriors after a 6-1 vote in favor of the measure by the school board Monday night.

Board member Matt Eber was the lone vote against using the Warriors as the new mascot.

The school board initially voted to retire the former mascot by the end of the 2024-25 school year back in January 2022, and the school has since spent years removing Native American imagery from the building and athletic fields.

The students, staff and faculty were surveyed in January, with 52% of the vote going toward the Warriors. A survey of people in the community that followed yielded similar results. The community has decided on the Warriors, according to the school district.

For the past few seasons, the school has been represented by a maroon letter “M” outlined with yellow.

The retirement of the former mascot was decided by a 6-1 vote in 2022, with Lynn Vermillion being the sole no vote. Vermillion was one of the votes in favor of the name change on Monday.

The changes were made to meet a recommendation of the Office of Civil Rights to remove all references to the mascot on uniforms by December 2023.