Guilderland High School threatens to destroy rock painted in honor of fallen student

Photo of Dylan Rossiter Dylan RossiterJune 2, 2017Last Updated: June 2, 2017

GUILDERLAND — The overnight painting of a rock in honor of Alyssa Gelfand, a Guilderland High School student who died Tuesday, has caused quite a stir on social media as school administrators threatened to take away commencement privileges for a handful of students involved in the tribute.

Danielle Jakob, a senior at the school, says she didn’t know the 16-year-old but felt like painting a rock in her honor was a good thing to do, “I saw this act of spray painting a rock as a harmless tribute for a beautiful person,” she said. “”I came up with the idea after everything happened and recruited a few of her really close friends to help execute the job – they were all so excited.”

Jakob picked up supplies and met friends at the school’s campus located on School Road, around 9;30 p.m. Thursday. They managed to coat the rock in purple spray paint, Gelfand’s favorite color, and were halfway through writing a message in black paint before getting chased off by a night-shift janitor.

In a meeting with the students early Friday, administrators expressed “immediate concern” about them not seeking permission first, but they “appreciated” the good attentions.

The rock, which was originally painted in the school’s red and black color scheme, stood in the memory of a historic PE coach. It said “Guilderland Athletics” in white lettering.

“Of course we didn’t know this prior and felt bad hearing about it,” Jakob said.

After getting chased away, Jakob and her friends visited the site where Gelfand crashed her car, Sunday night, on Hurst Road, not two miles from Guilderland high School. “Clare (a friend) parked her car with the headlights on the tree so we could appreciate all of the bouquets and notes and carvings in the tree people had left,” Jacob added. “It was really overwhelming for some of us. I hadn’t visited yet.”

From the crash site, students returned to the school to finish what they started. They painted “Forever Living In Our Hearts,” in white on the parking lot side of the rock, adding the date of Gelfand’s passing –  Tuesday, May 30, 2017.

As they left, a janitor pulled out and spotted the group fleeing in a car parked blatantly in front of a security camera.

They went their separate ways and reconnected before school the next day to fess up. “We decided we would be forthcoming to our administrators,” Jacob went on to say.

At some point that morning someone placed a tarp over the rock:

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But in outright defiance, two students ripped the blue tarp off of the rock – allowing their tribute to glisten in the sunshine.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PWcT6C_GQJ0]

During Friday’s meeting, Assistant Principals Matthew Ward and AnnMarie McManus called for backup from Head Principal Tom Lutsic. He explained that if every individual at the school wanted to do something different for whatever reason it “wouldn’t function the way it’s supposed to.”

The principal also expressed that some students may be upset seeing the rock and that a memorial was planned for this coming Monday, June 5, which includes the dedication of a bench in a memorial garden.

The students were then ordered to repaint the rock on Saturday or risk losing the privilege of walking across the stage at graduation.

“I hope it doesn’t come to that because I do not want to cover what I consider a beautiful tribute in plain red paint,” Jacob said. The school would later walk back the threat – but not before social media could add its two cents.

Students created the hashtag #KeepAlyssasRock as a means of protesting the “overreaction.”

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At 1:45 p.m Friday, the Guilderland Central School District released the following statement, allowing the memorial to stay:

Overnight, students painted over a rock that was previously painted as a tribute. We understand that students are grieving and for the time being, the rock will remain purple. Going forward, we ask that students help to honor Alyssa’s memory in our memorial garden. There will be a butterfly bench donated in her name, where students can help to decorate the bench with purple pebbles and flowers.

This isn’t the first time a painted rock in honor of a deceased student has sparked controversy. One year ago, in June 2016, 518 Sports exclusively reported on a similar incident at Shaker High School.

R.I.P. Alyssa.

Jason Palatsky contributed to this story

-Dylan Rossiter – @ByDylanRossiter – [email protected]–

Photo of Dylan Rossiter Dylan RossiterJune 2, 2017Last Updated: June 2, 2017