Everyone walks past it, only finding beauty in the colors, but maybe those colors should have meaning to students. The mural out in the front of the office at Freedom Area High School has been the main focal point of the school since 2001, but people have no idea where it came from or what it means. According to Ms. Rita Kaplin, the mural was painted by an art class in 2001 to portray what Freedom was all about. From sports to buses, it captures the essence of student life.

Recently though, Freedom has accepted a challenge: Rachel’s Challenge. This program is one to encourage kindness and compassion for everyone, by everyone, everywhere. The school has been trying to keep this specific vision alive by doing paper chains of kindness, having a poster for every year that a new graduating class joins “the challenge” and having a FOR Club or “Friends Of Rachel” Club, but people in this district want to take it one step further by making a “Rachel’s Challenge Wall” in place of the mural.
This notion was first brought forth to the board by Senior Kelly Staschak in 2013 after the first Rachel’s Challenge assembly and again after this 2014 assembly.

“Changing [the mural] to the Rachel’s Challenge wall would represent what we are trying to do here in Freedom,” Staschak said, “’being kind to others’ is something that we need to keep up, not only in school but where ever we go.”

When explaining her ideas for the wall, she explained that she and Mr. William Deal, Freedom High School’s new principal, want to move the existing mural to the wall outside of the gym, so it is not being destroyed but it’s no longer the focal point of the entire school. Staschak went on to say that she thinks the Rachel’s Challenge wall would show unity; this way it’s not only our school, but in our district as well.

“Most of the students I’ve talked to are for it, simply because they don’t really have a connection to [the existing mural],” Deal said.
Although there’s plenty of support in this notion, there are people who disagree with the idea.

There are students however, such as Senior Nick Charlovich, who are completely against changing the mural or even moving it.

“Why waste all the time and energy moving the mural and possibly breaking it?” Charlovich said, “[The Rachel’s Challenge Wall will] just be another thing students look at as they walk by and, in a week or two, they won’t even care.”

There are no plans to change the mural displayed outside the main lobby currently there are no plans for the future of the mural.