The County Chronicle

The online newspaper of Loudoun County High School

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Decades in the Making: A History of the Loudoun County Raiders

Emily Banner | staff writer

As the Loudoun County School Board voted this summer to change the school’s mascot, many students and community members remained unaware of the controversy which surrounded the original mascot.

The oldest school in the county, LCHS looked to the Civil War when choosing its original mascot.

An early design of the Raider mascot in the 1956 yearbook. He was drawn by the Art Staff, whose job it was to add these cartoons throughout the yearbook. Photo courtesy of Tonya Dagstani.

Colonel John S. Mosby was a Confederate leader during the Civil War. He was the leader of the 43rd battalion, a band of cavalry (and also artillery) known as Mosby’s Raiders (or sometimes Mosby’s Rangers or Guerillas). Mosby rode a blooded sorrel, who was the fastest horse in the army, according to the Dec 30, 1864 edition of the New York Herald.

Mosby’s Raiders were well known for their quick strikes on Union forces and their impressive ability to evade capture. “All of Mosby’s men have their regular boarding houses among the farmers,” says the same article. This meant they could disperse quickly from a raid to their separate partisan homes and to be called back together later for the next plan.

Loudoun County High School opened its doors for the first time on September 14, 1954, as an all-white high school. As mascot, the students selected John Mosby’s Raiders.

Another early Raider design, from the 1957 yearbook. This edition of the yearbook featured many scenes of foxhunting.
Photo courtesy of Tonya Dagstani.

The Raider mascot went through many different renditions over the years, settling finally on a mounted raider carrying a flag. At first, he held the Confederate flag.

In the 1978-1979 school year, Gene Ashton chopped the confederate flags off the school sign on the front lawn after

Blue Oliver, his adopted black son and a senior at the school, was removed from the basketball team from an unfairly enforced attendance rule. After a sit-in on February 1, 1979, and much discussion at the school, a new flag was created and replaced the confederate flag held by a mounted Raider.

Earlier this year, County alumni A.J. Jelonek and Deirdre Dillon started a petition to change the mascot. Jelonek says in his blog about LCHS that “Today, I take a stand and say no longer. I do not want to celebrate and glorify the Raiders anymore. It is time for a new Loudoun County High School mascot. I call for this in honor of Gene Ashton and Blue Oliver.”

The petition gained 2,372 supporters and the School Board decided unanimously to change the mascot.

The petition, posted on June 19, 2020, which called for the mascot change. The school board later voted unanimously to follow the student body’s wishes.

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What is happening to all of the Raider markings at school?

Alexis Shugars | Staff Writer

Raider mascot

The Raider marking on the auxiliary gym door remains from the school’s former mascot. Capt

With the change of our mascot before this school year, from Raiders to Captains, LCHS is forced to change most of the markings in school that have to do with Raiders.

LCPS is funding these changes per the School Board’s decisions. For athletics alone, It will cost $500,000 to change everything from Raiders to Captains. “We had to do a cost analysis on replacing items in each department,” said Athletic Director Kathleen (Kate) Cassidy.  “Based on those numbers various funding was given to the different departments.”

“With a school that was built in 1954 you can imagine the number of items needing to be changed,” Cassidy said. “I have lost count. I know we have 108 clocks in the building that will need to be changed out.” Although many Raider items will be switched out, others will remain.

All of the championship pictures located in the athletic wing will stay on the walls. Murals left on the walls by former Senior students will be left for now, and LCHS will wait to see where the conversation goes with Loudoun County Public Schools.

The administration decided to phase in the changes based on highest need. The first priority is athletics, and the second is the school store. Most schools only get around $10,000 to start up their school store. “We really pushed back and fought hard to get three times that amount for our school, because we have a great marketing program and the school store is really thriving,” said Principal Michelle Luttrell.

Currently, all markings in the school still remain Raiders. “We are going to keep the things we have in place because if we don’t get the stuff replaced, if the money’s not there and you guys start to come back on campus, we need to have things for you guys to use,” said Luttrell.

“I didn’t feel it was appropriate to under the cover of night, clear the entire campus of all things that say Raiders,” said Luttrell. She emphasized that this is a process worthy of conversation among students. “You can’t just erase history,” she added.

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