Report: Mass. HS Censors NRA, 2nd Amendment Message

Administrators at a Massachusetts high school reportedly painted over a pro-Second Amendment message students had drawn on a prominent rock on school property.

The police news and advocacy outlet Blue Lives Matter reported Groton-Dunstable Regional High School officials whitewashed the phrases "Defend the 2nd Amendment," "shall not be infringed," and "#NRA," leaving only an American flag the students also drew on the school's "spirit rock."

Senior Andrew Wilson told the outlet he and five friends held off on painting the rock — where students post messages throughout the year — after National Walkout Day on March 14 out of respect for the Parkland, Florida, mass shooting victims.

"People are associating guns with people having bad ideas," Wilson told the outlet. "There's talk of repealing the Second Amendment — you can't just go attack something like that."

The school intended the rock to accommodate school spirit, not political views, Groton-Dunstable Assistant Principal Rick Arena told the students, Wilson said.

"[Arena] said if we had written 'protect the First Amendment,' they probably would have done the same thing," one of the students who met with Arena said, according to Wilson. "He said they might have let it slide but the #NRA kind of pushed it over the edge."

Groton-Dunstable Regional High School Principal Michael Woodlock told Blue Lives Matter on Thursday "we respect our kids' rights, but feel there are more appropriate places for politics."

Woodlock said none of the students involved in painting the rock with pro-Second Amendment messages would face any type of disciplinary action.

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