Traverse City Area Public Schools (TCAPS) administrators have worked with student leadership at Traverse City West Senior High School to offer new "positive ways for students to express their school spirit," according to a release from the district, including introducing a new spirit rock and hanging chalkboards in the student commons area for student expression.

The move follows controversy at the school in 2017 after Principal Joe Esper and Assistant Principal Charles Kolbusz buried the school's original spirit rock and allegedly lied to TCAPS administrators about it, leading to their suspensions. The prominent large boulder was frequently painted – sometimes obscenely or controversially – by students and was considered a disruptive presence by school leaders. The original rock has remained buried in an unspecified location on campus since the time of the controversy. 

According to TCAPS, a new rock will be placed in front of the school. “We have been working with the superintendent, the board of education president, and our principal since the beginning of the year about what we could do about the spirit rock,” says Connor Thompson, Traverse City West Senior High School Student Senate Governor. “We had created a new conflict mediation class at West this year, so it was a natural fit to use the skills we were learning in class to determine what our next steps should be.” 

According to Esper, while it was "clear" students wanted avenues for expressive speech on campus, he said they were also "very mature in that they recognized how the previous rock became toxic over time. They have a clear plan to make these expression areas ‘student-owned’ and to use them to promote what they love instead of to be hurtful to others. I’m fully confident these students have a good plan to model responsible use of the rock and chalkboards and that they will pass that responsibility on to new groups of students each year.”

TCAPS Superintendent Paul Soma says he is "proud" of students working with administrators to find a solution at the high school. “The students involved showed maturity and leadership in their response to the initial incident, and I am pleased with how they have worked to resolve the issue as a school community," he says.