A message of love on a rock vs. homophobia cast in stone
Try as I might, no amount of internet research was able to uncover the origins behind the “school rock.” I’m not sure if it’s a Charlotte thing, a Carolina thing or a nationwide pastime — but I have narrowed its occurrence in Charlotte throughout the public school system down to the early 1970s — around the same time as the “pet rock” fad.
Almost every Charlotte high school — to my knowledge — has an oversized boulder out in front of the school grounds used as sort of an ever-changing billboard to spray paint messages ranging from acknowledgement of national holidays and historic tragedies to personal birthdays and political messages.
Providence High School, located just inside Charlotte on Pineville-Matthews Rd., is no different. A large oval-shaped boulder looking somewhat like a giant alien seed pod sits on the school’s lawn between the parking lot and the street.
On the morning of Jan. 12 we got an anonymous tip that a group of gay students at Providence had spray-painted the boulder in rainbow colors and hearts along with the message, “Love Knows No Gender.”
“It’s really great,” the voice on the other end of the line said. “You can tell these kids took some time putting this together. If you wanna get a picture of it though, you better hurry. I’ve heard they’re going to spray paint over it.”
I grabbed the camera and hopped in the car and headed for Providence High.
The tipster on the phone was right — there it was in all its glory — and the kids had clearly spent some time on their efforts.
I wheeled the car into a visitor’s space and made a bee-line for the rock. I knew if I wanted to get the picture I’d probably have to move fast. After snapping several from different angles, I locked the camera in the car’s glove compartment and headed for the principal’s office.
There I met with a nervous, wide-eyed secretary who immediately greeted me with some skepticism.
“What’s up with the rock?” I asked casually.
“We’re about to have that painted over,” she said off-handedly.
“The students use that rock to paint messages on a regular basis, right?”
“Yes. They do.”
“And sometimes you leave them up for an extended period of time?”
“Oh yeah — all the time.”
“Why is this one being painted over?”
The woman glanced up at me cautiously. She had been moving about the room picking and prodding at various things throughout the conversation, but my question brought her to a sudden halt as she pushed a handful of blonde hair behind one ear.
“Some people might find it offensive,” she offered. “Is it something you find offensive?”
“No,” I said flatly. “I thought it looked nice — so I took a few pictures.”
Bent over a shelf tugging on what appeared to be some paperwork, the woman stood up promptly and told me I should probably speak to the school’s Assistant Principal Sharon Poston.
After a few minutes, she reappeared to tell me that Poston was “eating lunch,” but that I could “wait around if I wanted to.”
“That won’t be necessary,” I replied. “I’ll just call her later. Why did she say the rock was being painted over?”
“Because she felt it might be offensive to some people.”
By the time I made it back out to my car a custodian was walking away from the rock with a can of grey spray paint.
“You painted over that already?” I asked.
“Yeah,” he answered begrudgingly.
“Do you know when that message was painted on there?”
“Probably last night sometime. When school ended yesterday there was something about ‘happy birthday’ on it.”
A few hours later my anonymous tipster was back on the line, confirming from a friend inside the school that the Principal Terri Cockerham had said that she hadn’t personally found it offensive — but was concerned a deluge of media attention might disrupt the school. According to my inside source, only two media outlets were contacted — Q-Notes and The Rhinocerous Times.
The Times later told my source that they had not bothered to follow up on the tip — which meant I was the only media to deluge the school. Sounds like a pronouncement of convenience to me.
By the end of the day I was on the line with a student who was a member of the GSA that was responsible for painting the rock.
“It was the hot topic of the morning,” she said with a soft laugh. “None of the people I talked to were offended. They were just surprised it got painted over so quickly.”
According to the young woman — who didn’t want her name used — the rock painting was done to increase the visibility of their club. Its roster lists about 150 members among a school population of 2,500.
“Generally about 20 to 40 people show up for meetings,” she explained.
“I was actually upset that they took the action they did,” the student offered. “It wasn’t necessary. It changes practically every night, anyway. There wasn’t anything offensive about it. I’ve seen far more offensive things on walls and bumper stickers around here than that.”
Three things about this incident I find particularly unsettling:
• Assistant Principal Sharon Poston apparently decided without consultation to muzzle LGBT students rights because she thought “some might find it offensive.” Sounds remarkably similar to a move by Charlotte-Mecklenburg Schools Superintendent Peter Gorman last month when he arbitraily removed the book “And Tango Makes Three,” — a story about two male penguins in a New York zoo that raise a chick together — because there was concern that some individuals might find it offensive.
• Lesbian and gay teachers in the Charlotte-Mecklenburg school system remain largely closeted, despite the fact Mecklenburg County passed a resolution forbidding job discrimination based on sexual orientation for its employees. “You can’t come out,” my source told me. “Students find out. If they’re disgruntled about something they’ll use it against you to claim harassment.” Imagine having to live with that fear throughout your career.
• Old style anti-gay hatred is still out there with today’s youth. The student I talked with didn’t want to use her name and even said that their Gay-Straight Alliance went by another name because “people don’t want to associate with anything that had the name gay connected to it.”
Silver lining around the grey cloud: we got pictures that prove Providence High’s LGBT students have chutzpah.
David Moore Editor
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