"Whenever we do chants or celebrate our team, doing anything good, we usually just call ourselves 'Franklin,' like 'Go Franklin,' " freshman Carmen Fiarito told the station.
In fact, some students seemed unclear on exactly who or what the Quakers are, with some thinking the mascot related to Benjamin Franklin, who was not a member of the Society of Friends, KPTV reported.
Pisano, however, told KGW that it was wrong for the school, which has no historical ties to the Society of Friends, to appropriate an entire religion for a mascot.
"For a public school, the use of the name of a religion never had any justification," she told the station. "What if we had a school starting a new sports team and they wanted to name it the Catholics? Or the Mormons? Or the Jews? Does any public school sports team get to use the name of a religion?"
The school board says it will outline the process for selecting a new mascot in the weeks ahead.
The Society of Friends, also known as the Friends Church, are a Protestant denomination that originated in mid-17th century England. Commonly known as Quakers, they address each other as Friends.
Perhaps the most famous Quakers mascot belongs to the University of Pennsylvania, but high schools in Ohio, Pennsylvania and Indiana, at least, also have Quakers as mascots.
Society of Native Nations representatives urged trustees at Keller ISD school board meeting to change the Keller High Indian mascot. They say its disrespectful and psychologically damaging to Native American and non-Native American children.