Harvard High School Students Repaint Rock Vandalized With Hateful Graffiti
HARVARD (CBS) -- Bromfield High School students in Harvard are letting their voices be heard through the stroke of a brush.
On Saturday, the students, led by the senior class, came together to take a racist situation and turn into something positive. On Thanksgiving night under the cover of darkness someone defaced the school rock with swastikas and other racist symbols and sayings.
"We had tried to paint the rock in a way that promoted peace and just positivity," Maggie Gill, a senior, said. "I was just disgusted that someone would take that and make it so negative and hateful."
The vandalism devastated not just the school but the entire community.
"This hurt everybody. This didn't just hurt a few people," Eric Broadbent, a parent, said. "
On Saturday, students, faculty and parents rallied together to re-paint the rock.
"Seeing the rock completely defaced was like, insane," senior Colin Cleary said. "Seeing people of all ages, from under classmen to kids from other schools to parents, administration. It's amazing to see everybody here.
Repainting the rock, school principal Scott Hoffman said, is a symbol of what the school stands for.
"What we're doing this afternoon in broad daylight is who we are," he said.
"It's important that we come together and show people that this is a community of love and hope," Charlotte Durham, the senior class president, said, "and it's not about hate."