by Isaiah Boyles
Recently, the Heritage Hill fixture known as “the rock” was the center of controversy.
Painting the rock with messages of school spirit, birthdays and graduations and support for school and community has been a longtime high school tradition. Since the abrupt ending to the school year in March and the subsequent protests following the death of George Floyd in May, a group of students decided to paint messages of support for the Black Lives Matter movement on the rock.
These messages stayed on the rock throughout the summer. However, shortly before the return of students this fall, the rock was covered with comments supporting President Trump, the initials ALM for All Lives Matter, and a symbol associated with Blue Lives Matter groups.
Students have since repainted the rock again with the message “Irvington is Everyone,” a student art campaign in our elementary schools started by local Irvington community members who seek to share student art that promotes “positive, inclusive, diverse, and welcoming themes.” (see Paw Print article)
The incidents raised questions among students concerning who gets to decide what messages are written on the rock and more broadly, what function should the rock play in terms of student speech.
The administration hopes to be able to continue to use this rock as a positive platform in our community for school spirit.
Ms. GM, IHS principal, said: “We want the rock to be used to build unity and spread positivity and school spirit throughout our community, as it always has, not as a place for back-and-forth conversation or negative dialogue.”
If a similar situation were to occur again, a new, perhaps stricter approach and practice would likely need to be considered.
Ms. GM said, “If this does happen again, we would likely connect with our student leaders in Student Council. We would meet with them to discuss the situation and about possibly implementing a strict practice. Maybe a system of approval in order to spray paint the rock.”
Assistant principal Mr. Samuelson added, “An extreme [solution] might be suspending all writing on the rock.”
After the spray painting of the rock, there has been a discussion among students about whether or not the rock is a place for political statements or activism, or whether it should just be centered around school spirit specifically, and students here at IHS had varying opinions.
“I would agree that it should be reserved for spreading school messages,” Jake Ourman, a junior, said. “As much as it may seem that everyone shares our opinions, if this incident shows anything, it’s that we all don’t have the same views, and that’s perfectly normal. For that reason, I believe there’s a time and a place to express messages regarding one’s political opinion.”
Hannah Tuckett, junior, said, “I believe that political messages should not be written on the rock for the sole purpose of preventing controversy among the student body, but I also think that BLM is not inherently political.”
She continued, “While BLM was labeled as a political message, and many do view it as that, at its core it is a matter of basic human rights. In the future I think the rock should only be used for messages of school spirit because it is now clear that students’ political beliefs can differ so greatly and disrupt our learning environment.”
Although there are different opinions on the topic, no different policies or practices have been enforced, so as of right now, the rules of the rock remain the same — it remains a place to come together and celebrate school spirit and our community.
