Hurley School Board votes to drop Midget mascot

Come fall, students in the Hurley School District won’t be cheering on its longtime mascot, the Midget.

The Hurley School Board had planned to let voters weigh in on the issue in an April referendum, but last night, the board changed course and voted to discontinue use of the mascot at the end of this school year.

The board said in a statement, “The Hurley School Board has been wrestling for some time with the future of the Hurley Midget mascot. To be sure, this is the most difficult decision any of us have ever made as board members.”

The school board said it changed its mind on how to tackle the mascot issue because it didn’t want to divide the community.

“We wanted to avoid any situations in which neighbors would be pitted against neighbors in a divisive and disruptive way. We fully understand that many in the community will disagree with this vote, but we felt the need to take action,” the board said in a statement.

Hurley’s mascot is decades old and had been a source of community pride. However, Hurley School District Administrator Chris Pattrito said that he and other board members have fielded complaints from alumni in the last dozen years or so.

The mascot name is widely considered offensive among people with dwarfism and their families and friends. Ultimately, the school board felt the mascot sent the wrong message to students and families.

Pattrito said, “I couldn’t really tell you the backstory. The best story I heard about the ‘midget’ was that many moons ago we were playing in a state tournament and we had a lot of short Italian miners and one of the radio announcers said they looked like midgets.”

The board will begin the process for choosing a new mascot with community and student input.