Utah Man Starts Petition to Change High School Mascot’s Name Because It Sounds Like Male Genitalia

A Utah man launched a petition Friday to change the mascot of a newly-constructed high school because he thinks the name would invite dirty jokes.

Petition works to change Utah high school mascot that sounds like male anatomy https://t.co/GznD29pgp6 pic.twitter.com/JDTVjBbYfk

— FOX 13 News Utah (@fox13) November 14, 2017

The Salt Lake Tribune reports that the Davis School District in Davis County chose to give Farmington High School, which is slated to open in 2018, a phoenix as its mascot.

Resident Kyle Fraughton, however, is concerned that the school district’s choice of mascot sounds too similar to a dirty word.

Fraughton launched a Change.org petition Friday explaining that if school supporters yell, “Go Phoenices!” at events, it would sound like they would be saying the word for male genitalia.

“We were horrified to hear that the phonetics of the word Phoenices are far too close to the word penises,” Fraughton wrote on the petition. “I don’t mean to be crass, but don’t want there to be confusion around the point I am trying to make.”

He argued that if he could make that connection, others could and use crude humor at the school’s expense.

Fraughton proposed that the Davis County School District should allow students to vote a second time on the mascot’s name so the district does not “bear the responsibility of our children being bullied.”

A representative for the school district dismissed Fraughton’s claims.

“We don’t see anything about the plural version of phoenix having anything to do what’s going to be happening at the school or on the football field,” Davis County School District spokesperson Chris Williams told KSTU.

As of Wednesday evening, more than 3,100 people have signed the petition.