No, the North Kitsap High School “spirit rock” has not been removed, but relocated in an effort to better monitor the messages that appear on it.

Apparently some messages posted on it have not been spirit related.

The rock has been on the campus for decades, but was relocated from near the parking lot to closer to the schoolat the commons in a decision made by staff and the Associated Student Body.

“We started this discussion a while ago as a school community, including ASB and staff. The NKHS Spirit Rock has been a part of our campus for many years and will continue to be so. However, we did want to move it to a location where it could better serve its purpose and where we could better monitor the messaging,” Megan Sawicki, NKHS principal, says in a letter to its families.

“We still welcome student messages of spirit and care for each other. We do ask that messages that are unrelated to school spirit not be displayed on the rock. We are excited and think this will be a great new location.”

Sawicki said there has been a growing concern that messages on the rock were becoming more offensive and hurtful.

“After meeting with ASB student leaders, and NK staff, we agreed that we wanted to move the rock to a location where it was still a prominent part of our school, but where we could also respond to inappropriate language or behavior involved with the spirit rock,” Sawicki said.