There’s a car in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé commons, and administrators are willing to grin and Crimson Bear it.
Principal Paula Casperson said the two-door Ford painted JDHS colors and bearing signatures from many in the high school’s graduating class is a welcome alternative to potentially destructive or harmful senior pranks.
“This is a great example of a senior class that wants to celebrate their time at JDHS,” Casperson said. “It’s pretty positive in nature. They took care to use stanchions to keep that space safe.”
The car features a red hood featuring the school’s Crimson Bear logo, sharp teeth across its front bumper and glaring bloodshot eyes on its headlights. Signatures from students are scrawled all over the vehicle, and a dummy made out of blue warm-up gear and a large stuffed bear occupy the vehicle’s cabin.
Not a lot of senior pranks include signatures, but the car assembled in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé commons sometime before Monday, May 13, 2019, includes the signed names of many seniors. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)
She said she wasn’t sure how or when the car made its way to the high school’s commons space, but hazarded a guess that it was assembled inside the building. Whoever placed it there is not at risk of getting in trouble, and it will be tolerated.
“I am under the impression that as soon as we ask for the art installation to be removed, it will be swiftly disbanded,” Casperson said.
She did not say when that request might be made. The JDHS graduation ceremony will be at 7 p.m. May 26 in the high school’s gym.
Some students walking by the car during the passing period said they’re pleased with the sort-of prank.
Senior Anna Kahklen pauses with senior Cassious English and freshman Kylah Bentz to admire a car located in the Juneau-Douglas High School: Yadaa.at Kalé commons. (Ben Hohenstatt | Juneau Empire)
“I love it,” said senior Anna Kahklen, who stopped to admire the car while enjoying a bite to eat.
Senior Cassious English and freshman Kylah Bentz said they were fans, too.
They confirmed the principal’s suspicion that the vehicle was pieced together in the commons, but said they weren’t directly involved with the piece.
They did not name the secretive assembly line that did make the car, but said they understood the builders to be shop class students.
What comes next for the car is undecided, said Kahklen and English.
English said he has heard a student may keep it in their driveway or display it somewhere out the road, but hadn’t heard anything final.
• Contact arts and culture reporter Ben Hohenstatt at (907)523-2243 or bhohenstatt@juneauempire.com. Follow him on Twitter at @BenHohenstatt.
