Washington school 'bans mural of unofficial mascot Thor on walls claiming image of Norse God would be racist and sexist'

Diversity bosses in Washington state accused a student council of promoting white supremacy for suggesting a mural of hammer-wielding Norse god Thor could represent their school team.

Students at Mountain View High School in Vancouver offered a mural of the god - whose name translates as 'thunder' - to decorate a wall in a newly renovated building as their senior gift.

Its team is nicknamed 'The Thunders' and there is already a Thor statue in the school's main entrance.

But the AI image they came up with horrified the district's equity office which demanded the god be removed or accompanied by women and people of color.

'They had an issue with the image not being racially and gender inclusive, as well as upholding an image of pure colonization, white power, white supremacy and even going as far as to say that it was alluding to racist anti-black imagery in the south,' student council member Tara told KTTH.

The AI generated image  of the Norse god of thunder showed him wielding his hammer on top of a mountain amid lightning bolts

The Vancouver school has previously embraced its 'thunder' identity, running a Thunder Success Academy, a Thunder Crew, and Thunder Mentors

'We were just essentially told that we will maybe understand their perspective when we're in our 40s and have more life experiences like they do.'

Authorities at the school near the Columbia River have embraced its 'thunder' identity, running a Thunder Success Academy, a Thunder Crew, and Thunder Mentors.

So the students' senior council was not expecting a backlash when they suggested the god of thunder for their new mural.

They used their talents with AI to produce a classic image of the deity wielding his hammer on top of a mountain amid lightning bolts.

'We were really excited to have the mural up, we thought by Spring Break,' Tara said.

'But then we had to go through the district a few times to make sure that the image that we were permanently putting up on the walls was something that they could agree with to represent our school.

But after submitting their design they received an email from Evergreen Public Schools district administrator demanding to know if students had been surveyed about the design.

It reminded them that 'We are a system that strives for inclusive representation and our Title IX and Gender Inclusive Schools commitments obligate us to create a neutral and diverse representation of the 'Thunder'.

It asked for some 'other options of the mural from the artist', and volunteered a suggestion that they 'remove the person (Thor), enlarge the hammer and rotate it so that it's hammering the center of the mountain'.

The council members were hauled before district staff, including the equity advancement specialist.

Council member Ava said they were told that 'without context, our image could be taken the wrong way,' suggesting it could promote white supremacy.

The students were told to be 'mindful that the image, despite it not being problematic is something that could grow to be controversial'.

Tara said it was a 'very uncomfortable position for a bunch of high school students to be put in'.

'Realistically, as a student, if I'm walking down the hallway, and I see this image up on the wall, that's not going to be the first thing that comes to my mind,' Tara added.

Klarissa Hightower heads the Director Equity and Inclusion office at Evergreen Public Schools

'The first thing is going to be like, 'This is my school mascot on the wall. And it looks pretty cool'.'

'We find it extremely disturbing that those who benefit from white privilege would utilize the ideals of equity to silence a predominantly female, ethnically and racially diverse, democratically elected body for daring to speak truth to power.

She said the suggestion that adding women and people of color to the image of the Norse god would be ludicrous 'nothing to do with school'.

'It was very obvious that if we put something like that up, it would be very obvious the entire student body and anyone that knows anything about Mountain View that it was just to fulfill a diversity quota,' she added.

Dailymail.com has reached out to Evergreen Public Schools for comment.