San Diego high school gets a new mascot, replacing Chieftains with Captains

Jemma Stephenson, The San Diego Union-Tribune on Feb 25, 2026

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SAN DIEGO — Clairemont High School’s new mascot will be the Captains, after a name change process prompted by a state law addressing names and mascots derogatory to Native Americans.

The San Diego Unified school board voted unanimously Tuesday evening to change the mascot from the Chieftains.

The choice of Captains pays homage to the school’s history in a military community, said trustee Sabrina Bazzo, whose area includes Clairemont High, on Monday.

“It represents leadership and inclusivity,” she said.

A 2024 state law bars public schools, other than tribal ones, from using “derogatory Native American terms” for schools, mascots, names or nicknames. The ban takes effect in July.

“For purposes of this section, ‘derogatory Native American term’ includes, but is not necessarily limited to, Apaches, Big Reds, Braves, Chiefs, Chieftains, Chippewa, Comanches, Indians, Savages, Squaw and Tribe,’” the law says.

In San Diego Unified, the district’s Indian Education Program also pushed last year in a letter to change Clairemont’s mascot.

“For decades the Chieftains mascot has been a source of anti-Indigenous racism because of the stereotypical imagery and portrayal that Clairemont High School has permitted and promoted,” they wrote.

The change at Clairemont was the first one undertaken under San Diego Unified School District’s new name change policy, approved last year.

Those changes were intended to bring more transparency to the process, after the district was criticized for the opaque process that led to the renaming of what’s now Dr. Bertha Pendleton Elementary from Henry Clay Elementary.

Trustee Shana Hazan acknowledged Tuesday that things were “a little bumpy” a year ago, and trustees knew they needed to refine the process.

Clairemont Principal Karly Johnstone said she appreciated district leaders’ creation of a process but said they still had to figure out how to implement it.

She said she is now looking forward to figuring out what her school’s new mascot will look like, and how it can best represent all students — “so that they will be proud not only to be a Clairemont High School student but also a Clairemont Captain,” she added.

The new school and mascot renaming policy San Diego Unified now follows requires a 10-person naming committee composed of school officials, educators, students and community members, along with at least two public input sessions.

In the case of Clairemont High, the committee looked at over 100 names, Bazzo said. Six townhall meetings were held, and the list was whittled down to four names. The Captains was chosen from those four.

Previous renaming efforts, Bazzo said Monday, were “a lot more rocky and not done as thoughtfully.” This process was much less contentious — something she attributed in part to its being driven by state law.

“People had different thoughts on it, and there was emotion around it,” she said. “But they really came together at the end of the day and did what was right for our school and our community.”

The new mascot will be put in place this fall for the 2026-27 school year.