By: Brayden Gable

Why in the world does this TV exist in Grandville High School? Everyday, this TV is walked past with the same question of why it is there, we don’t even use it? The box TV located in the Vanderslice gym was put up when the high school was built in 1997. The TV was built back in the day to show the announcements made by Mr. Blevins, a retired Grandville A.V. teacher here and his class. This is back when they used to do announcements at the beginning of 5th hour instead of 2nd hour which was changed due to our KCTC program being input. 

      There used to be two of these TV’s, one used to be located in the West Gym across from the Vanderslice gym. Mrs. Doyle proves this point during her interview saying “There used to be one in the West gym too, look for the black bracket that is still on the wall by the door.” When asking Mrs. Doyle the current gym teacher at GHS about the TV she said “Back in the day our AV classes would film announcements and they would be shown on TVs in each classroom. Like a TV show. We had a PE class in that gym everyday and they would use that TV.” 

Also, Mrs. Doyle was asked if she had any great or memorable stories related to the TV, where she responded ecstatically “Oh my gosh, so many hilarious AV videos were shown on that TV. When I was first hired, Mr. Blevins and Mr. Corfixen would film hilarious videos of themselves and would show them to the school. Soooooo funny. Teachers used to make goofy stuff all the time – I was even in some – but let’s hope those tapes have been destroyed!!” It seems from Mrs. Doyle’s perspective of what the TV would produce would bring her and her classes much happiness when it was used so often back in the day.

You can’t tell in the picture too much, but that TV is about 25 feet above the ground in a weird cornered area from the gym and is also surrounded by medal bars with one slab of see through plastic. When Mr. Parsons, the athletic director at our school, was asked about what was the reasoning of the exact placement of the TV and the protection around it he said “The reason is because we tried to keep it out of the way from flying objects during games or PE classes with it still being in a watchable location in the gym.” 

Then you would think that since it isn’t being used though why does it still need protection and why is it still there. Mr. Parsons, when asked about this, claimed “That’s a great question, simply because it hasn’t been a priority to take down.” This TV brings memories to the school, but at this point seems to be worthless when it comes to the use it used to be intended for. There is simply nothing that can be done except to wait until the TV becomes a priority to be taken down.