As the Vestavia Hills City Schools debated whether or not to keep the “Rebels” nickname and mascot for their sports teams, the superintendent of the Jefferson County Schools says that another controversial mascot will not be changed.

Pinson Valley High School, which has used the nickname “Indians” since the school opened in 1972, will continue to use that nickname and mascot, Supt. Craig Pouncey said after a recent meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Education.

“Pinson Valley has been the Indians from the beginning, and I don’t see that changing. They will continue to be the Indians,” Pouncey responded to a reporter’s question in a brief press conference about the system’s pay raises for many workers.

Schools with nicknames and mascots that some groups find to be offensive have come under fire in recent times, especially those with nicknames related to Native Americans. Pinson Valley was itself the subject of an online petition two years ago, when a man from California started the petition after seeing a banner at a playoff football game against McAdory that included a reference to the Trail of Tears, the forced march of Native Americans through the south to new reservations in the western United States.

The topic of controversial nicknames has come up again after the mass shooting in a church in Charleston, S.C., in which the shooter allegedly had ties to racist causes. That set in motion a series of efforts to force the Confederate battle flag from public display in many places, as well as pressure for schools with mascots associated with the Confederacy to change.

That movement led to Vestavia Hills holding recent hearings on whether to remove the Rebels mascot and nickname. The school board eventually decided to keep the nickname, but said that the mascot — a caricature of a Southern plantation owner that’s similar to one used by Ole Miss — would be “rebranded.”