‘Snohos’ slang not cool, says school

Published 9:00 pm Wednesday, March 30, 2005

SNOHOMISH – It’s in yearbooks, in passing reference on the school district’s Web site and graces the name of a local espresso stand.

But it’s a no-go for the word “Snoho” at Snohomish High School – at least in the plural form.

Michael V. Martina / The Herald Snohomish High School senior Justin Patrick was suspended after a dispute over his T-shirt.

A senior at the school and four of his friends got that linguistic lesson after administrators asked him to cover up his T-shirt, which had “SNOHOS” printed across the chest.

Justin Patrick, 17, said he tried to explain that Snohos was a slang term he and his friends came up with to refer to themselves, with Snoho being short for Snohomish. It also was the title of a video they made featuring stunts around the city.

But administrators saw it as a derogatory term aimed at women – that is, “Snohomish ho’s,” as in whores.

In February, an assistant principal noticed Patrick’s shirt and asked him to cover it up. After arguing with her, he stormed out of the room using some choice words, and was suspended for several days.

Justin and his father, Barry Patrick, are fighting to have the suspension removed from his school record, saying the request that sparked his outburst was frivolous.

But there’s nothing frivolous about how Snohos degrades women, principal Diana Plumis said. And the term has been abused in the past.

Members of an opposing team at a girls sports game last school year, she said, wrote a sign that said “Beat the Snohos.” The opposing team’s principal later called Plumis to apologize, saying it was in bad taste.

“There’s a real difference between the word ‘Snoho’ and the word ‘Snohos,’” Plumis said. “I can’t see our boys football team wearing a shirt that said ‘We are Snohos,’ can you? … It’s a pejorative reference to women. And I don’t want our name to be used to rank on our girls.”

The school’s girls dance team also was chided earlier this school year for using the term. The girls printed their own T-shirts that said “Snoho” on the front and “mish” on the back. Their coach told them not to wear them, the principal said.

“I feel pretty strongly that it’s inappropriate,” Plumis said.

Patrick and his friends don’t appear to be backing down.

The boys wore their shirts to school on Wednesday in protest and to see what students and teachers thought of the term. All but one of the boys kept the shirts loosely covered with their coats to avoid getting in trouble, though they were warned not to wear them again.

They printed the T-shirts two years ago, and have each worn them off and on to campus since then. “And now here it’s three months before graduation,” said Kyle Butcher, 18, “and all of a sudden it’s a problem.”

The boys say Snohos has special meaning for them. They labored in ninth-grade over what to name a video that shows them performing stunts such as riding a wheelbarrow into a hedge and a trashcan lid down some stairs.

They thought about “Sno-homies,” but it was a slang term overused on campus at the time, they said. So they shortened it to Snohos.

“It’s us,” said Jesse Malean, 17.

Later, they each made a shirt with different colors, some with different text styles.

Mac Stach, 18, said the only people he’s talked to who are offended by his shirt are adults.

“I just think it’s kind of BS, because we’re proud of Snohomish, and it doesn’t mean what they say,” Stach said. “We wear it as a badge of honor. We can’t take pride in where we’re from?”

Ashton Hobelman, 17, agreed: “It means something to us, like putting an American flag on your chest.”

“We wouldn’t call ourselves a female derogatory term,” he added. “I’m a dude.”

Some students and community members side with the teens, calling the ban an overreaction.

Jackie Boser, 18, a senior, said she has heard some people use the term in a derogatory fashion. But she shrugs it off. “(It) isn’t true. It’s just an abbreviation of us.”

At a popular espresso stand on the other side of town, there’s no question about the meaning of Snoho.

SnoHo Mojo Espresso plays on the Seattle Mariners baseball team’s “SoDo Mojo” slogan used several years ago when there was still a Kingdome to be south of. “Our boss is a huge Mariners fan,” barista Molly Stewart said.

Barry Patrick points to the espresso stand as one reason the shirts should be acceptable.

He also photocopied pages out of the school’s last three yearbooks that include the term Snoho in reference to students’ cars, the softball and baseball teams, and on a sign held by a group of seniors in a class photo. And he pointed to a reference on the school district’s Web site that talks about a local sports newscast’s use of the term.

He showed these examples to school administrators. “You guys are doing this, what’s the big deal with Justin doing it?” he said. “All they wanted was for us to go away.”

Plumis said the school still is looking into the matter, and she understands Patrick’s intentions with the shirt.

“But I think he also began to see why others might find it offensive,” she said. “It’s basically an issue of respect – for everyone in the community.”

Reporter Melissa Slager: 425-339-3465 or mslager@ heraldnet.com.