The Memorial Wall and Garden at Plano Senior High School in Texas is gone, taken down during a multimillion-dollar campus renovation, and the families of students it honored say nobody told them first. A petition asking the school district to put a new one in place had 1,667 verified signatures when checked on Nov. 12. Plano ISD says the memorial items are in storage and that the removal is temporary.
The Tree and the Stone Raised for Evan Johnson
According to CBS Texas, the Memorial Wall and Garden honored students and staff who had died, and it had served as a place of remembrance for years. It held plaques and a tree planted in memory of Evan Johnson, a former student.
Johnson’s mother, Leslie Cherryholmes, wrote in the petition’s text that her son was a junior at the school when he died in December 2014. His friends and family raised money for a tree in the garden, she wrote, and a large stone with a plaque was placed near it. The plaque read, “Don’t be afraid to live life.”
“Over the years, that tree grew tall and beautiful,” Cherryholmes wrote, adding that it has since been destroyed.
Zackaria Rabah Says Families Were Never Notified
The petition was started by Zackaria Rabah, whose brother Gabriel Rabah, who died in 2016, is among those the memorial honored. Rabah told CBS Texas, “They tore down this memorial without any notice, notifying any families.”…