A tradition that has been going on at Park for many years has been ended by the recent construction around the school. This is the first year where seniors will not be able to paint the wall by Park’s track, an iconic tradition that’s always highly anticipated by the senior class.
According to senior Martin Gablenko, the loss of the tradition has affected the grade negatively because of the excitement around it.
“Everyone’s really sad and our whole grade’s in shambles,” Gablenko said. “It’s really not looking good. (Painting the wall was) something we were all looking forward to.”
Principal Lanisha Paddock said administration is planning an alternative option for the seniors to make up for the loss of painting the wall.
”I know that there is intent to build a new wall that is not part of the construction — outside of the construction area,” Paddock said.
According to senior Ruth Kanyinku, some of the seniors were apprehensive because deciding what to paint isn’t an easy decision.
“I was not necessarily (looking forward to painting) just because it’s going to be hard to agree as a class on one thing,” Kanyinku said.
Paddock said this tradition is very important because it helps the seniors portray their emotions onto the wall.
“It is a tradition that our students look forward to,” Paddock said. “So being able to express themselves creatively is important.”
According to Kanyinku, most of the seniors are not looking forward to the alternative of the tradition because of how last minute it could be.
“The school is usually really last minute,” Kanyinku said. “They’re probably going to come up with something last minute.”
According to Gablenko, the senior class has gone through something like this in middle school, and feels targeted and left out of these meaningful traditions.
“We feel left out. This happened with us in the middle school construction,” Gablenko said. “This has happened way too many times in our grade. We really think that the administration has it out for us at this point.”
According to assistant principal Alyssa Gardner, the administration is planning other activities for the seniors so they can make up for the loss of the wall painting tradition for now.
“As of now, we’re working on the senior timeline,” Gardner said. “Senior information will all be pushed out probably next Wednesday to our seniors and their families.”
