It would be wise for a few of our local school districts to get a jump on the sure-to-come mandates to change the name of their school mascots and have plenty of time to make a good choice.

Most of the 12 school districts that the Eagle covers for sports are in the clear, but a couple are sure to be targets, eventually, and the way this governor likes to give mandates it will be coming soon.

We don’t know the history on all the mascots for the schools, but some are quite obvious. Slippery Rock Rockets and Mars Planets are easy to explain. The Butler Golden Tornado and Freeport Yellow Jackets also seem harmless as to political correctness.

The most uncertain would be the Karns City Gremlins. Google says that the word gremlin first appeared in 1929 as a slang word for unexplained mechanical issues with planes and evolved into a mythical creature that intentionally fouls up equipment especially airplanes.

Maybe someone can explain how and why it became the Karns City mascot. Also in a state of limbo would be the various Knights and Trojans of which we have four schools using those similar mascots.

A Knight is defined as a mounted soldier in armor who defends his sovereign lord. A Trojan is most readily identified today as a computer virus. The mascot has nothing to do with that but rather relates to an ancient tale about the Trojan War. After years of fighting, the Greeks built a giant wooden horse which they presented to their enemies, the Trojans, as a peace offering. The Greeks actually had soldiers hidden inside the horse, who after being brought inside the city of Troy, came out and defeated the Trojans. Despite losing, the Trojan soldiers were described as plucky, determined and energetic.

We aren’t certain where this is going to fall under the microscope of those leading the charge to correct wrong names.

If you take away the possible knowledge about Trojans being computer viruses, most probably think of Knights as soldiers from the years of warring kingdoms and the Christian crusades. That may get them caught in the fray.

But the two schools that may as well start their search for new names are the Seneca Valley Raiders and the Moniteau Warriors.

Both are going to get classified as offensive to the indigenous people of America, and no amount of arguing that it is meant to honor their spirit and toughness is going to change anything. They will go down with the Atlanta Braves, the Kansas City Chiefs and especially the Washington Redskins as former mascot names.

The one major college with a chance to be allowed to keep an otherwise doomed name and practice is Florida State University, the Seminoles. The Seminole Indian Tribe is known as the Unconquered Nation, and the last time this issue came forward the head of the Seminole Nation declared they were quite proud of the name and did not take any offense concerning it.

Now, the tomahawk chop which they created and the aforementioned professional teams copied is another story.

We aren’t sure how FSU will try to stop 100,000 drinking college students from doing the tomahawk chop during football games, but most likely they will try.

So what will be calling the new school mascots?

Will it be some sort of alliteration? The Seneca Scholars? The Moniteau Miners? OK, neither of those sound great. Truly giving the students an opportunity to find a new mascot will be the best way to go.

As silly as some may find these changes, they are going to happen so why not get ahead of the problem?