Posted on 05/19/2005 3:06:54 PM PDT by ShadowDancer
Students Out For Year After 'Love' Graffiti Spree
Senior Students Banned From Graduation Ceremony
POSTED: 10:36 am EDT May 19, 2005 UPDATED: 10:56 am EDT May 19, 2005
HOWELL, Mich. -- Four high school students in Howell have been suspended for the rest of the school year for vandalism.
Three of the suspended students are seniors. School officials said they won't be allowed to take part in their graduation ceremony. The fourth is a sophomore.
The group spray painted the word "Love" all over school grounds after covering up the words "God hates fags" scrawled on a rock near the school's main entrance.
The students said they thought the anti-gay message was an attack on their openly gay friend, and they wanted to make a statement. They spray painted the word "Love" more than 50 times in various spots on campus.
Road to Hell....good intentions....you know the story.
It amazes me how often we students don't stop to think about how our actions will be interpreted. Great friends, but I like mine with more brains.
The school lasts another 2 weeks? Whooooo.
I get their feelings but this was a really, really stupid way to go about it. Destruction of property is destruction of property, no matter why it's done. This was a very dumb idea and the punishment fits.
If they are not harshly punished, they will grow up to be hippies. It may already be too late.
So they live in Hawaii and can't go to school? Huh. Sounds like surf's up.
I guess their "love" ends when digesting someone's else's opinion.
LOL!
Life gets better, I graduate tomorrow. - also seconding the stupidity.
Will this be persecuted as a love crime?
That should be "prosecuted"--and no, that wasn't a Freudian slip. :p Sometimes a graffito is just a graffito.
Congratulations on your graduation. "Life gets better" is RIGHT! There's a whole world out here.
There's a lot of backgound that can be told here. It started in 2004 when Michigan passed Proposal 2. On election day, alledgedly some pro-gay marriage students painted the rock with "Vote no". I've heard that others painted over it with "Yes". Prop two passed easily statewide, and passed easily in my county, including Howell district. It started there.
This is actually a conservative part of the state. Even Bob Dole won here rather easily. However, the school board (nonpartisan) has a lot of liberals on it, and the administration and teachers tilt left. The diversity club was able to get a rainbow flag up. It was in response to "Proposition 2 passing" according to one of the members. However, since the school needed a spin job for this to fly with the locals, as well as a lot of the students. It's called a "diversity flag", not a gay pride flag. I can at least respect honestly, but don't give me a smokescreen.
I've heard several rumors that the flag has been taken down several times, and that now there is a full time bodyguard there to make sure the students don't mess with it.
I suspect the rock painting of "God Hates Fags" (which isn't right) was partly a response to all of this hype. In response, you have the vandalism you have here. I doubt it would have happened if that flag wasn't up.
I wouldn't have taken them out of graduation for that, but I certainly would make them either pay for the costs, or take care of the problem itself.
Lastly - Go Bulldogs!!! (Rival school I went to)
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