"They called me a name,'' he recalls. "But it said 'Mr. Hall is a ...' "

Hilarious. More proof that drugs are a leading cause of stupidity. And more proof that Mike Hall was respected - even by the few who did not admire him during his 18 years as principal.

Superintendent John Patzwald said Hall "created an environment that was respectful regardless of differences.''

In other words, even the purple-haired delinquent in the Marilyn Manson T-shirt learned to paint obscenity with civility.

Unfortunately, all those straight-A years as boss for 1,500 students and 125 adults at Anderson High ended like a "C" on the final exam when Hall retired in the midst of an uproar over the school's mascot.

Critics - including me - thought Hall cynically put the Redskins mascot on permanent detention, like a Clinton pardon on his way out the door. Not exactly.

"I felt like I was leaving and I needed to deal with this issue and not leave it for my successor,'' he said.

He did not act alone. The decision to keep the Redskins name was approved by two-thirds of a 21-member committee. The school name was not deleted the way Miami University dumped its Redskins name for "RedHawks.'' (Interestingly, Anderson's nickname came from Miami 70 years ago.)

But the committee that saved the name voted unanimously to scrap the Indian costume worn by a dancing student mascot at games.

And that set off a tornado in a teepee. A Native American student protested that she had been given permission to be the next mascot. A recall of the school board was threatened - although there's no mechanism for it.

"I wish it wasn't there,'' Hall said of the mascot kerfuffle. "But I didn't lose much sleep over it. It's a volatile issue and it's still not over. But I just felt we had done the right thing.''

He said the Redskins name was never disrespected, but the dancing Indian insulted Native American spiritual traditions.

He's right: It's not over. Redskin opponents will keep trying to rip the Redskins chapter out of America's history textbook. And Redskin supporters will burn board members at the stake if they let it happen.

But anyone who thinks Hall was genuflecting to political correctness is wrong. "I'm really conservative and I take the conservative viewpoint,'' he said.

He opposed liberal sex-education that pushed contraception. "Abstinence was the basis of our sex-ed,'' he said. When the state introduced a plan to teach students how to use condoms, he responded: "Over my dead body.''

How refreshing to hear a principal openly say what most parents think.

This year, Hall retired - for one weekend. On the following Monday, he was back at work building the "high school of the future'' for Miami Valley Christian Academy in Newtown, where enrollment has bloomed to 217 K-8 students this fall.

For Hall, it's a chance to do the things that larger public schools can't do: Bible-based education on morals and ethics.

They couldn't find a better man for the job than Mike Hall - I mean "Mr. Hall.''

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E-mail pbronson@enquirer.com or call 768-8301.