The North Idaho town of Orofino has asked the Idaho legislature to create a specialty license plate for its high school. No other Idaho high school has its own license plate. The bill has passed the House despite some stiff opposition.
Orofino is home to a state mental hospital and many people see the local school mascot, the “Maniacs” as an offensive caricature. The image is a wild-haired, screaming cartoon character jumping in the air. It wears what, to many people, looks like a hospital gown.
Mental health advocates have been trying for decades to persuade Orofino to change the mascot. They argue the maniac mascot is hurtful to people who have struggled with mental illness.
Orofino mayor Ryan Smathers says it has nothing to do with the mental hospital.
‘Nobody sees it that way here,” Smathers says. “You know, I grew up here. We’ve known all along where it came from, where it started. And we just don’t feel like there’s any correlation between the two.”
Orofino residents say the mascot represents enthusiastic fans at school sports events. They claim it began at a particular basketball game nearly 100 years ago.
The most recent attempt to get the mascot changed came three or four years ago. The Idaho Federation of Families for Children’s Mental Health tried a letter-writing campaign. Federation director Stephen Graci says there was little response.
“Other than, ‘Look, this is our choice, it’s our community and our mascot and we’re going to keep it,’” Graci says.
Graci says the claim the mascot has nothing to do with the mental hospital is difficult to buy.
“I buy the idea that it’s a tradition in their town, that their townspeople and their community are comfortable with it,” Graci says. “But I don’t buy that the state should be comfortable with it by basically authorizing it and saying yeah, this is OK.”
Graci says there isn’t anything that can be done to get Orofino to change the mascot, but the state can say no to putting it on official license plates.
Marshall Cook worked at the mental hospital in Orofino, State Hospital North for about a decade until he retired in 2002. Cook was facility’s one non-psychiatric doctor. He says the staff never did a formal survey, but they did talk to patients about the mascot.
“Patients at State Hospital North uniformly thought that it was funny, and they were not the least offended by it,” Cook says.
We were unable to reach anyone who currently works at the state hospital.
Orofino’s mayor tells us the “Maniacs" are a big source of pride for the town because the school frequently makes national lists of most unique mascots. Its uniqueness, he says, is the reason it should be on a state license plate.
If the bill passes the Idaho Senate, the license plate would feature an image of the mascot. But lawmakers decided it should not have the word “Maniacs” as supporters initially proposed.
Fine Adam Cotterell on Twitter @cotterelladam
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