Niwot High mascot under fire

Activists from the organization Please Understand Mature Attraction (PUMA) are putting pressure on administrators at Niwot High to change the school's longtime Cougar mascot, a symbol they say is offensive.

"Our culture is not your caricature," President Venus Hunter (56) of PUMA said during a protest held in Cottonwood Quadrangle. "We are real people, with real emotions, and don't like to see ourselves reduced to a cartoon."

More than a dozen PUMA members attended the demonstration, which gathered a small crowd of curious onlookers. Hunter gave a fiery speech calling on the school to abandon the "misogynistic" Cougar moniker, while other members carried signs reading "Attraction doesn't have an age limit" and "Cougars are for loving not fighting." PUMA also circulated a petition calling for the mascot change, as well as a formal apology from the school and St. Vain Valley School District.

"We demand respect for our way of life," Hunter said. "It's not a costume to put on to entertain the home crowd."

PUMA formed in 2005 after actress Demi Moore married fellow actor Ashton Kutcher, 15 years her junior. According to its website, the group is dedicated to "dispelling myths about women who prefer younger men" and "combating unfair stereotypes." The group launched its protest in Niwot after members noticed the proliferation of clothing, signs, and other materials featuring language they termed "demeaning."

"Everywhere I went in Niwot it was 'Good Luck Cougars,' or 'Sko Cougs' or 'Please congratulate our Cougars of the Month'," Cher Chasseuse (54) a longtime PUMA member said. "At first I was flattered, but then I realized the slogans were referring to the school. That's just not right."

Hunter was accompanied at the protest by her new husband, Julian Giles (24). The pair met when he was a groomsman at her son Justin Hunter's wedding in 2019. At the time, she was going through what she described as a "dreadful divorce" from second husband, Tad Middlemarch (38) after a 14-year marriage. Giles, an outfielder, offered a sympathetic ear to the soon-to-be-divorcee, and it wasn't long before the two were an item.

"Next thing you know, Justin, was attending OUR wedding. We thought it would be a little weird if he was best man though," Carter commented.

Among the onlookers at the protest was Hunter's first husband, Norman Hunter (55) a longtime resident of Niwot, his fourth wife Kaylie (26), and their toddler daughter.

"I think what Venus and her little group is doing is pretty silly, and I'm embarrassed for them," he said. "They're just trying to stave off middle age by pretending to be in their 20s or 30s. They need to act their own age. Besides, a cougar was an animal before it was an identity."

As of press time, Niwot High and St. Vain administrators have not responded to our interview requests on the matter, but the district issued a press release reading in part:

While we are skeptical of PUMA's claims that Niwot's beloved Cougar mascot, introduced by the Class of 1974, is in any way demeaning, offensive, or perpetuates stereotypes, we want to be sure that all students, faculty, employees, parents, and visitors feel welcome and included in our school environments. We have convened a 100-member blue-ribbon panel consisting of area administrators, athletic directors and students, as well as members of the Niwot community, to study and debate the name change issue further. Among the new mascots under consideration will be the Prairie Dogs, Parking Lot Gulls and Bears, which we firmly believe will not be found offensive by anyone anywhere at any time.