Dividing GHHS Students: The Chalkboard Project (Student’s Perspective)
During the 2017-2018 school year, my junior year of high school, Grand Haven High School launched the Chalkboard Project. Even then, something about the Chalkboard Project didn’t sit quite right. Something was off. I’ve since figured out the issue. The Chalkboard Project, disguised as an “anti-bullying” campaign, effectively encouraged GHHS students to develop victim mentalities. Grand Haven High School students were encouraged to see themselves as oppressed, and to reflect on times when they [the students] had been hurt or oppressed. The Chalkboard Project encouraged students to be victims. That’s not okay. This article will explain how the Chalkboard Project works, how the project was implemented at GHHS, and the effect of the project on the student body.
The Chalkboard Project: What is it?
The Chalkboard Project is an initiative to bring awareness to hurtful words/phrases in a high school setting. The issue with the Chalkboard Project is that it encourages students to develop a victim mentality. Participating students are encouraged to think of words (or phrases) that have been used to hurt them in the past, encouraging the students to think of themselves as victims. Once the student has selected their chosen word/phrase, the student is photographed holding a chalkboard displaying their chosen phrase. Once all participating students have been photographed, a “Celebration Event” happens where students write positive affirming messages on their peers’ posters (more on this to come).
GHHS students explaining the Chalkboard Project (video):
This video by GHHS students explaining how the Chalkboard Project was implemented at GHHS was shown to GHHS students during the school day during an extended third hour period (the extended third hour period morphed into Academy class during the 2018-2019 school year).
Chalkboard project explained (Chalkboard project website):
The Chalkboard Project at GHHS: My Experience (2018)
The Chalkboard Project was first launched at GHHS in the spring of 2018. Starting in February, participating students would head down to the conference rooms by the offices during the school day to have their photo taken. Many students participated for the sake of being part of the movement, others participated simply for a reason to skip class. There was immense pressure to participate from peers and teachers alike. Some teachers went as far as to offer extra credit to students who participated in the Chalkboard Project.
After photos had been taken of all participating students, the photos were printed out and pasted throughout the main hallways of the school. Posters were approximately 2x3 ft in size, and two to three rows of posters were pasted through the hallways. As students walked through the hallways, they were bombarded with the messages on the posters – “slutty,” “bowling ball,” “horse,” “cottage cheese thighs,” “not good enough” – etc. These messages are depressing, induce anxiety, and are not pleasant to be around. I avoided the main hallways as much as possible during the two weeks these photos lined them.
Rather than bring students together, the Chalkboard Project encouraged division among the student body. Students were encouraged to think of words (or phases) others had used to hurt them in the past, creating or enhancing a victim mentality. In Chalkboard Project photos displayed in this article, students have chosen words including “privileged” and “loud.” Is there anything inherently wrong with being privileged or loud? Were these girls bullied for being privileged or loud? Or is it more likely that these girls wanted to feel special (as victims)?
Even the “Celebration Event” (where students were sent to write positive messages on peers’ posters) had negative ramifications. While many students did indeed add positive messages to their peers’ posters, as many more students took the opportunity to insult other students and draw penises on students’ posters. I personally witnessed students write messages including “I love weed,” “bitch,” and “bitch” among others. While many high school students are lovely young adults, high schoolers are still teenagers, and often say/do hurtful things when the opportunity arises. The large volume of students writing messages on posters gave anonymity to anyone who didn’t sign their name, meaning students had the perfect opportunity to deliver hurtful messages to fellow students while remaining anonymous if they so desired.
I was thinking about the Chalkboard Project recently and was curious to see if it was still ongoing. After googling “the chalkboard project grand haven high school,” I was shocked to find the second search hit was a directory of photos taken during the 2018 Chalkboard project (when I was at GHHS), and even more shocked to find the project had been repeated in 2020. Links for the Chalkboard Project photo directories are below. All photos displayed in this article were taken from the 2018 GHHS Chalkboard Project photo directory linked below.
2018 GHHS Chalkboard Project photo directory
2020 GHHS Chalkboard Project photo directory
The Chalkboard Project at Central High School
Parting Thoughts
In contrast to many issues and organizations discussed elsewhere on this site, the Chalkboard Project is (thankfully) not a national program / organization. The Chalkboard Project was founded locally by art teacher Jennifer Gwinnup at Spring Lake High School. However, a local origin does not negate the negative impact of a schoolwide effort that encourages victim mentality among students.
If GHHS and other schools want to work towards a schoolwide effort to stop bullying, the solution is not the Chalkboard Project. The solution to stop bullying is not celebrating the victims; the solution is to get the victims to stand up for themselves and punish students engaged in bullying. While I believe the people behind the Chalkboard Project had good intentions, I believe their intentions were misguided, and that the “good intentions” ultimately created more harm than good. While I would support a schoolwide effort to stop bullying, the answer is most definitely not the Chalkboard Project. The Chalkboard Project has already been completed twice at Grand Haven High School. The Chalkboard Project should not be completed again.