In the past few weeks, an increasing amount of graffiti has been surfacing around Athens Drive. Before now, the majority of graffiti were school appropriate announcements and birthday wishes on the Senior rock and in students’ parking spots, but more recently expletives adorn bathroom stalls and sexual images surface on walls and in parking lots.
The graffiti at Athens Drive is not the professional kind of graffiti. No one is getting paid to make a mural on the side of the school, or write Athens Drive in bubble letters above the entrance of the gym.
“The graffiti here looks sloppy, and its apparent that no one who is doing the graffiti is putting much thought into it. It detracts from the appearance of the school, and makes it look less like a professional environment,” said Lexie Johnston, senior.
The defacement of public property with any permanent material is illegal, even if it is just in a bathroom stall. However, it is hard to monitor everyone who goes in and out of the stalls with a sharpie or pen, fortunately some students have an idea of how to improve the state of the school.
“If girls want to exchange their wise words or whatever they feel like saying on the surfaces of bathroom stalls, it is perfectly legal for them to do it pencil, rather than sharpie. It helps the custodial staff out while still getting their words out there, at least for a little while,” said Lindsey Rigg, senior.
In the senior parking lot, a different form of graffiti surfaced last week. This form of graffiti, however, is not illegal. The fence that contains the athletics buses was filled with cups to spell out “HBD LEA,” HBD being an acronym for Happy Birthday. The cups were referring to junior, Lea Tomkova, according to another junior, Sydney Yount.
A gesture like this one is harmless, akin to students writing congratulations in chalk within the lines of friends’ parking spots. However, after a few days of being lodged in the fence, the cups were rearranged by unknown culprits to form a certain crude image.
At a high school full of pubescent teens, a crude gesture was bound to form at some point. However, the second rearranging of the cups, to form “Go Jags.” This positive use of the cups gives some students hope for a new way of expressing school pride.
“The cups could possibly be like a spin on the senior rock. It is easier because you do not have to go out and buy spray paint when you want to make some kind of announcement. Even if it did take a negative turn again, it is so easy to just take the cups down rather than having to paint over something or scrub it off,” said Lexie Johnston, senior.
Other students still think there should be another outlet for expressing oneself by way of spray paint or sharpie, other than the Senior Rock.
“Graffiti can just be a way for people to get their ideas out there, as teenagers we sometimes need that kind of outlet. The Senior Rock is used mainly for announcements, so I think it would be beneficial to have a designated area where students can share their ideas and art somewhere other than the bathroom stalls,” said Reilly Donahue, senior.
