The news of the historic shed being demolished has spread quickly and the backlash is just as timely.
I know letters to the editor aren’t common, but I think the community needs to know the backlash that is occurring from this, even beyond the walls of Chantilly. I’m currently a Third Year at UVA and still working as a production editor on the Cavailer Daily, our student newspaper here. I’m not sure how familiar you are with UVA, but we have a bridge, Beta Bridge, that is the equivalent of the shed in our college community. And just like the shed at Chantilly, I couldn’t imagine life at UVA without it. Both are a place to not only announce exciting events around the school, but they are also a place to express yourselves as students.
The shed is not just a building. It is a memory over 30 years in the making. As Features editor, I worked on an in-depth article covering the history of the shed. One of my good family friends went to Chantilly in the 70s and was part of the first class to paint that shed. His two sons go to Chantilly right now and I can only imagine how he is feeling about the shed being gone forever.
There are very few ways for kids in Northern Virginia to express themselves, something I have learned even more now that I have left. This shed is such a part of our school that even kids from Oakton and Westfield know about it and are as devastated as I am to learn that it is gone.
I wish I could show you my Facebook, Twitter, and G-chat status feeds right now so you could see how many graduates of Chantilly, many of us now college upperclassmen and even graduates, are shocked and appalled that this part of our childhood is gone. It is the epitome of a NoVa childhood for our one place to fully express ourselves to be torn down for a road expansion, and it should not be tolerated.
I truly hope that the students react to this and work together to erect a new shed to give all of you a place to share with the community the happenings of Chantilly. I know that many of my fellow graduates would be more than happy to come back and help see this happen, because this shed meant so much to our time at Chantilly.
One of my fondest memories of that shed is when one of my very favorite teachers, Mr. Sharrett’s son was killed in action in Iraq in January of our senior year. The senior class was devastated to see our favorite teacher lose the most precious thing in his life. As a class we joined together to paint the shed in honor of him and it stayed up for months.
That is what a school like Chantilly needs. We’re too large to know every person in that school, but we do have one place that can bring us all together. I cannot believe that the County had the insensitivity to allow something like this to happen. My disillusionment of growing up in suburbia has only grown stronger seeing that this has happened.
Kate Zimmerman, ’08
Kate Zimmerman created ThePurpleTide.com in 2007 and spent three years on staff. She served as Online Editor-in-Chief, Design Editor, Views Editor and Arts Editor.
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Update: Feb. 22:
While we all understand that this is a topic very close to peoples hearts, please refrain from personally attacking fellow commenters. The Purple Tide is a public forum and so we wish to display all opinions but further “attacks” will not be tolerated. We also request that you continue to provide your real names.
Update: Feb. 23:
Featured comment from Sean W.:
It’s an interesting parallel to see that people are using this comment thread (and other vehicles of social media) to express emotions in the very same way that the shed allowed us to communicate our thoughts and feelings to one another. Even someone who came here to express ambivalence or support of the shed being torn down has a forum to release some emotion and that was in the spirit of the shed. It’s also interesting to observe in the parallel that unlike this forum or other chatter, I cannot recall one instance of hateful/negative speech appearing on the shed. It was always a symbol of pride and joy. I’m sure the energy that emerges from this loss will be positive and that something will be established to fill the void. But, it’s nice to come together for a moment and reflect on the meaning of a symbol of our youth.
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okay… umm this is so weird. the shed wasn’t school property. personally, i think it is worthless to get upset over because you guys were vandalizing someone elses property. its nothing to whine about and i think it was immature of Kacur to give out the emails of the people responsible. they are going to get so much hate from kids that don’t know what they are talking about. if the school cared so much, they would have bought the shed in the first place.
@George, whose property was it? And while it might not have been legally Chantilly High School’s, would you agree that how the community values it is just as significant as ownership itself?
It doesnt matter if it was school property or not. They knew what that shed meant to the students, the school, the the community. That shed was a way for us to show how we felt. Whether is was grief over a lost loved on, or advertising a school event, or celebrating a win for a sport. It meant a lot to everyone and the fact that they just tore it down like that without notifying the school is messed up.
i believe that if the school had KNOWN of the shed’s demise, they should have bought it, or at least bought some time for the community to react. its sounds like the school didn’t know. the things that were done to that shed should not have been considered vandalism. maybe call it vandalism for the first 10 or 15 people that wrote on it, but that was like 25 30 years ago. i bet the people that DID own it would not mind at all for the kids to use it the way they did. it was the only way for kids to say how they feel, and possibly make someone else feel how they do. I’m 23 and I’ve lived in Chantilly my whole life, i have memories in that paint. I’ll miss it.
@George, How would you feel if one of your preshish memories was taken away from you in an instance? Of course it is worth getting upset! Also, the way you address the students is ignorant. They understand these kind of things very throughly, probably more then us, and they have every right to be mad. My friends, family members, fellow community members, and myself included, are crushed by this event.
I for one am glad it got torn down. I think you all deserved it at least 90% of you all. xD I for one was thinking about burning it down myself (not really, but maybe? nahh but you’ll never know will you?)
I guess you’ll have to find another way to express how you ban together and ignore the people whoa aren’t like you. Q_Q
@George, you were partially correct in that the shed may not have been Chantilly’s property, it was in fact the property of an old telephone company that has since abandoned the shed. However, like I said, it was abandoned many many years ago and as another poster said its hard to consider it vandalism when nothing had been done about it and no one had complained to the school about making kids stop. As far as your ignorant statement about “if the school cared so much, they would have bought the shed in the first place” there was no need for the school to buy it over the past 30 years because as far as they were aware no one had an issue with it. Moreover, the principal and the school were unaware that the she was being removed until it was too late for Chantilly to purchase the shed or stop the demolishing of it. If they had known ahead of time I believe they probably would have tried to do something to save the shed. So before you get on here telling us “kids that don’t know what they are talking about” not to whine maybe you should check your facts as well, as it seems like you think you know a lot more than you actually do. It is a tradition in Chantilly High School’s history that is now just gone, without warning, so of course people are going to be outraged and they have every right to be and every right to express their anger. If you had a child at this high school you would probably understand how upset this would make them so my guess is you are just some random guy from the area… if that is the case stop being creepy and get off the school newspaper’s website, and if you do have a kid at the high school, I bet your children are upset about it too and I feel bad for them for having you as a parent who clearly cares so little about something important to the community and the high school together.
@Shannon I don’t really see how it has community values. Yes, it was menaingful to some people, but its just a shed. The majority of Chantilly’s students probably have never painted it. It had its meaning to part of the community, but again it really shouldn;t be as big of a deal as it is. The paint just gets painted over anyways, so why does it matter?
@Luke First of all, don’t call me “ignorant,” and say I don’t understand this thouroughly. I was a student at Chantilly, and I know first hand what the shed means to the students, and that is exactaly why oppose. Just because it was a place to go paint when something interesting happened, it doesn’t need to be this publicized. Tons of students don’t get credited for their accomplishments by the shed, only big sports and such. I think that the only time I would say the shed was significant was when the students painted the shed after the Virginia Tech students, which represented that the WHOLE school supported a real tragedy. Usually the shed would just be painted by a certain group of people that honestly had no influence in the school as a whole. THe pain only stays up for a week before another group takes it over.
@Rachel Thanks for that novel you wrote. If you had a property that was being vandalized and didn’t complain , but you wanted to tear it down, would you tell the person vandalizing it beforehand? And why do you assume that I have no involvement with the school? We don’t need a “warning” for something being torn down that isn’t even ours. I respect anyone who had memories with the shed, but I just don’t like everyone getting involved and enfuriated about it. It’s done. It’s down. Get over it, at least you were fortunate enough to have a fun experience painting it, you should keep taht memorie rather than thinking your whole memories are gone without warning. And how dare you call me ignorant and then call me a “creepy guy in the area.” YOU are ignorant and you just insulted me and my job as a parent, which is something I hope you understand, I am insulted. You are lucky this is just a school website, I’m allowed to voice my opinion. If you really want to treat this like a formspring and call me creepy, go for it, but you just make yourself look foolish.
@George: You are right about people calling you names. It is inappropriate and misguided. However, I do think you could be little more sensitive of the feelings of your fellow Chantilly alumni and other community members who were genuinely saddened by the loss of something that held valuable memories for them. Some of the reactions may seem over the top, but for many of us it wasn’t “just a shed,” as you put it.
As for your assertion that students were just “vandalizing someone else’s property,” a great many of us were totally unaware that the building did not belong to the school. The tradition of painting it began long before we were even there and since no one seemed to object there was no reason to think we were doing anything wrong. In fact, I don’t actually think we were. The building was not torn down because anyone objected to the ever-changing paint job; it was torn down because it was no longer convenient to the ever-changing NoVA landscape. For some of us this represents progress, but for others it represents a sad commentary on the ephemeral nature of suburban life.
As for the school buying the shed: it has been made pretty clear no warning was given to afford any opportunity for such an action. If warning had been given I am sure there would have been sufficient alumni support to have the building moved onto school property. Perhaps you would have thought that stupid, but as I said, it wasn’t “just a shed” to all of us.
The senior shed has always been a sacred, intimate shrine for CHS seniors, and it’s retirement is devastating. My classmates and I formed inside jokes and lifelong memories derived from words spray-painted on the shed. All Chantilly seniors should be able to claim sacred ground on campus, in order to preserve the memory and future legacy of each class. My prayer is that future classes will, while recognizing the shed’s burial ground as sacred, find their own places and words to converge upon and contemplate. Let current Chargers decide what will be spray-painted over, and what will be definitively duct-taped. RIP CHS shed! A faithful Chantilly alumnus, Sarah (1998)
Chantilly High School is morning the death of one of its own today. For years it stood as a statement to every student who ever walked the halls of the school. We would pour out our emotions onto it in times of joy, sadness, defeat, devastation and celebration.
During the daylight it stood as a modern work of art, giving all who passed a small insight to the mind of both current and past Chantilly students, and at night it was a black ops mission for each student who partook in its tradition. It became a source of pride and a right of passage for every student who ever was able to grace it with a brush or a can. It became something we used to brag and boast in our day of victory as well as a coping mechanism for our times of mourning. It was Chantilly’s facebook wall far before facebook ever existed.
Over the years the messages and images that graced the walls helped bring together every student at Chantilly in one way or another. Students learned to unite with generations past that they would never see or speak to, but somehow when it came to this they still shared a common understanding of what exactly it meant to be a student at Chantilly High School.
And now long after it was first started, after the school had been redone and the teachers had come and gone and each class had graduated it seemed as if this was one of the only things left at Chantilly that remained a reminder of the days that so many generations had spent there, this was until yesterday when it was torn down.
So with this I want one last time to grace the walls with a phrase that seemed to be seen far too many times on your walls. Rest in Peace Chantilly’s Shed/Graffiti house you will be missed.
@George
First of all, I do agree that you have the right to your opinion, but you should know that you would be attacked when you decided to write a negative and provoking comment about something that 96% of the community is upset over. What makes you say that the kids have no idea what they are talking about? It sounds to me, sir, like you don’t know what you are talking about, especially when it comes to community spirit.
I do not believe that you are as old as you say you are. I think you are either still a student, a recent graduate, or by the way you write, a recent drop-out. I really hope you are not a parent.
As a 2001 Graduate I find it hard to believe that you would feel this way with your claim of being a former student. I never painted the shed myself, but I do have fond memories of it, and truly enjoyed seeing it painted any time I passed the school.
Are you just a jealous alumn who never had the opportunity to paint the shed? Or are you just a bored high school student looking to stir up an argument because you have nothing better to do?
While we all understand that this is a topic very close to peoples hearts, please refrain from personally attacking fellow commenters. The Purple Tide is a public forum and so we wish to display all opinions but further “attacks” will not be tolerated and edited out of the comments. Thank you.
@Georgey Boy
Who cares if it officially wasn’t owned by Chantilly? It was used exclusively by CHS kids for 30 years. At the very least it was implied ownership and the school should have been consulted before it was tore down.
It’s an interesting parallel to see that people are using this comment thread (and other vehicles of social media) to express emotions in the very same way that the shed allowed us to communicate our thoughts and feelings to one another. Even someone who came here to express ambivalence or support of the shed being torn down has a forum to release some emotion and that was in the spirit of the shed. It’s also interesting to observe in the parallel that unlike this forum or other chatter, I cannot recall one instance of hateful/negative speech appearing on the shed. It was always a symbol of pride and joy. I’m sure the energy that emerges from this loss will be positive and that something will be established to fill the void. But, it’s nice to come together for a moment and reflect on the meaning of a symbol of our youth.
@George
I am a former CHS student and while I wasn’t on a sports team or maybe one of the “elite” groups of people that usually painted the shed, my group decided to paint the shed once and it was great fun and a memory I’ll always remember. While the shed being gone doesn’t delete that memory it is sad to know that no future students will have that same feelings. So if you didn’t paint the shed in your years or felt like it was below you please don’t belittle others who felt it was an important part of their years. You are entitled to your own opinion, but when you attack the opinions of others and go angainst a vast majority do not be surprised or fain offense when you really did ask for it.
And while the VT painting was probably the largest sign of support shown on the shed there were many other instances where the community came together to paint the shed to memorialize the death of someone in the community. My 10th grade year a girl in my class died very suddenly at the end of the school year and people painted the shed with her face and heald a vigil there. And a few years later after I graduated another friend of mine died and even though we were no longer students at Chantilly everyone who knew him came together to paint the shed an remember him. So to a lot of people, these memories are important and it is sad to see this place gone, no matter how meaningless a painted shed may seem like to an outsider it had a lot of meaning to people and thats why people are upset by this.
If this doesn’t upset you, thats good for you, you have obviously lost nothing important by its demolishing, however, don’t rain on everyone else’s feelings and expect not to get called out for doing so and by you continuing to post here after being “offended” it is clear that you are just trying to rustle people’s feathers
Disappointing.
as an alum of class of 82′, I can say that this is a sad day. On the news, seeing the layers of paint/memories destroyed. Its amazing how thick that total layer of paint was.
Go Chargers!!!!
George really should visit the RIP Chantilly shed site on Facebook. He will see that the class of 2011 seems to be the last to paint their their senior right. This shed had been there since 1976 and I believe was owned by C&P Telephone back then (I will have to research it.) To me, back then, this shed was a symbol for the senior class. A passing right to paint and display their school spirit especially around homecoming. It was usually painted in the school colors with the senior classes year boldly displayed and some reference to Charlie Charger. Back then, the only housing developments were Greenbrier and Bookfield. The school housed grades 7-12. This SHED was a symbol of our small town community bond and a treasured landmark. To me it was a symbol of our “town” and schools team spirit. A gentle place that we rode our horses, even through the McDonalds drive through. It seems now that the only landmark left from way back when is the old Chantilly Cash and Cary (if it still stands) with their lovable Chantilly Billy logo. It is a piece of the town and schools history, like that of Chantilly Farm (an actual farm) became Franklin Farm housing development, is now lost forever. Keep an eye open fellow Chargers, word is spreading like wildfire. A new spirit building is in the works. Hope to see each and every one of you Friday for the vigil. It is well worth the 3 1/2 hour drive to me.