For years, past Mason senior classes have written their names on the bricks in the alcoves as a way to preserve their memories from high school and leave their mark on the school.

However, on the morning of Monday March 20, GMHS seniors walked into the senior alcove to find the names of past and present seniors on the walls replaced with white primer. Needless to say, students were upset.

“The other stuff should be covered up, but the bricks are people’s names,” senior Sarah Lubnow said.

The initial shock still hasn’t really worn off. Multiple class conversations and back and forth between the administration and students has only made the situation more complicated.

The project was carried out by Alice Castillo, Andrea Dilao, and Eduardo Pacheco, members of the Class of 2017,  who painted the alcoves as part of an IB Community Action Service (CAS) project, which is a requirement for graduation.

“The administration wanted to renovate the whole area,” Pacheco said. “[Painting the alcove] is a way to give back to Mason as the last class that has been [at GM] since 8th grade.”

At a senior class conversation on Thursday March 23, only a few days after the primer went up, Assistant Principal Mr. David Serensits talked about how community members had seen some of the profanity written on the walls and thought it was inappropriate. The administration, therefore, made the decision to paint over the bricks in order to clean up the alcoves.

“My seven-year-old read [the profanity] and I was embarrassed because I had to explain it to him,” Serensits said on his personal feelings about the repainting.

“We need to maintain a professional learning environment,” Assistant Principal Mr. Kevin Clark said.

After the meeting, Counselor Mr. Brad McAdam wrote a Facebook post in the Mason Class of 2017 Facebook group expressing his opinions on the situation.

“Whether the so-called ‘tradition’ of defacing school property started three, five, or ten years ago, the fact is, students were never given permission to write their names or any other clever saying on the walls, ceiling, or any other part of that particular hallway,” McAdam wrote.

McAdam’s post supported the administrative decision, but it was the tone of the post which upset many students.

“There are many decisions they make where the faculty has no say. That’s how the world operates,” McAdam wrote in the post.

This sparked a variety of responses from students who expressed their concerns with the administration and how they handled this situation.

“There is visible mold in many places throughout the building, live birds falling through the ceiling, broken toilets and faucets, stalls that do not latch, and ceiling tiles that collapse when it rains,” senior Katie Smith said.

“Part of what made [the] meeting so frustrating was that it seemed as though the admin didn’t care about how we felt as that they refused to answer questions and to have a discussion with us about the issue at hand,” senior Anna Dubro said.

When Ms. Amy Kurjanowicz, Director of Counseling, brought up the story of Nora’s Garden in the senior courtyard, many seniors felt this was disrespectful to bring up her story as a way to “guilt-trip” them into accepting the decision about the alcoves.

“For the admin to bring up the courtyard in the beautification argument was uncalled for because there haven’t been issues brought up about defacing the courtyard,” senior McKayla Bobitski said.

Even a week later, the issue was still on everyone’s minds. Principal Mr. Matt Hills called for another senior class conversation on Tuesday March 28 in which he gave students the opportunity to voice their opinions and apologized for the tone that was conveyed in the previous meeting. He explained that the decision was made in order to cover the inappropriate “graffiti” on the walls and that this has been an issue for many years.

“We faced a lot of adversity, but at the same time we had an amazing amount of support from some students who felt we were doing the right thing,” said Dilao.

While most of the profanity is gone and the names are hidden below the paint, this does not mean that the previous senior classes will be forgotten.  At the last senior class conversation,

Principal Hills also stated that the administration is working with students to find a new way to preserve the Class of 2017 and future GM classes’ legacies.  

“[The seniors] had a vision and they wanted to make the space more beautiful for everyone,” Ms. Suzanne Planas, the project sponsor, said. “This project signifies new beginnings.”