William S. Hart High School principal Jason d’Autremont announced the new school mascot, the Hart High Hawks, during a mascot reveal ceremony Tuesday evening in the Hart High auditorium.

The Hart School Board voted 4-1 to replace the high school’s controversial Indians mascot by 2025 at a July 14, 2021 meeting after requests from alumni and others.

A slide show presented by D’Autremont during the meeting outlined the detailed process used by Hart High to conduct the transition to a new mascot.

A recent vote of Hart High students and staff was held in late February and early March resulted in 833 votes cast in favor of the Hawks and 273 votes for the Bison.

“It was quite a margin of victory for the Hawks,” said D’Autremont. “Seventy-five percent voted for the Hawks.”

As D’Autremont announced the new mascot the crowd in the auditorium erupted in loud cheers and applause.

In the coming months d’Autremont announced a timeline that will include development of new logo imagery for the Hart Hawks and a vote will be held April 22-26 to select the new Hart Hawks logo.

On May 3 a Senior Rally will be held where the Indians mascot will be officially retired and the new mascot logo unveiled.

D’Autremont also shared a message sent out to the student body about the new mascot.

“Hawks are symbols of strength, freedom and intelligence, mirroring the characteristics of the Hart community,” he said. “The alliteration of the Hart Hawks maintains continuity with other district mascots like the Valencia Vikings and Canyon Cowboys. Hawks are indigenous to the Santa Clarita Valley.”

D’Autremont also said the choice of the hawk will also allow the school to continue to honor its Native American heritage without concerns about “cultural appropriation.”

The last few decades have seen schools across the United States replace mascots deemed culturally insensitive.

The public ceremony ended months of speculation on the identity of the new mascot that will replace the historic Hart High Indians mascot.

Information provided in a handout to audience members at the mascot reveal noted that Hart High School was founded in 1945. “In the inaugural class of students (class of 1949), a contest was created to have a ‘nickname’ for the school. Carl Clymore proposed ‘Indians’, which was selected as the mascot for Hart High School on Jan. 10, 1946.”

Hart High was named in honor of silent film Western star William S. Hart who lived in Newhall and was a generous community benefactor. Hart died June 23, 1946 leaving his Newhall ranch and mansion with all its contents, including his collection of Western and Native American art, including rugs and pottery, to the people of Los Angeles County.

“We worked on this for more than a year. We had public meetings, we talked to the Native Americans in the area, (the Fernandeño Tataviam Band of Mission Indians) and they asked us to change the mascot,” said Linda Storli, president of the William S. Hart Union School District Board of Trustees. “My heart said if it’s hurting people, children, I knew we had to look into it even though I knew we would have opposition.”

Storli said it was a difficult decision, but “this change needed to be made.”

“We really took this to heart,” she said. “We knew what an important symbol the Hart Indians was to Newhall and Santa Clarita.”

Storli said at the end of last night’s presentation two Native American women approached Storli and hugged her with tears in their eyes.

“They thanked me, but the moment was disrupted by an angry member of the audience who got in my face and also yelled at them,” she said. “I am very sorry that happened.”

Storli said that despite the opposition of a few members of the public, “I know we did the right thing.”