You might have noticed some extra space in your classroom, or maybe that a certain hanging object is missing. The old box TV’s around the school have simply vanished. But don't worry, Harding hasn’t been robbed, this removal was deliberate.
Harding High School has had these boxed televisions since moving into this building in 2003. The deal was that we would get cable for free, as long as during HQ everyone played channel one news. Eventually, that deal went away, and the district started to pay for the cable, but it became outrageously expensive. The TV’s were then used for the VCR players attached to them, but that as well became obsolete. But why this removal now?
Around the school year of 2021-2022, custodians were told to take down the old box televisions, however here at Harding this job was never finished. Jeff Reidenbaugh, new custodian for Harding this year, said he did the removal for George Washington in 2021-2022. It’s unknown why the job was never finished here at Harding, but better late than never.
This removal happened over winter break, however, not over any weekend. Bebout gave the perfect reasoning for this, stating that “The custodians work over break… they are all here at the same time, so you have enough people to go through the process.” The custodians also don’t work over the weekends, unless handling events.
The decision to remove these TV’s was influenced by a teacher that was requesting every month that this removal happen. This teacher is unknown, but I'm sure they are happy it happened. However not everyone is happy about this removal. “If mine didn’t have to be taken down I would have preferred them not to have been taken down,” says Mr. Ellis, who uses his TV every year for his students. “I was disappointed because we use them every day that we did the stock market project.”
Although requesting to keep the box televisions would have been nice, that wasn’t an option, as teachers weren’t warned about this removal happening; suddenly the TV’s were just gone.
However, other than more space, how does this removal benefit Harding? Recycling for the TV’s has become harder to come by, and Jeff Reidenbaugh even stated we might have to start paying for it soon. Bebout also mentioned that “it’s just something that could fall down,” which leads you to wonder, how many have fallen to consider the box televisions as a liability issue?
Although the TV’s and a part of this school's history is now gone, they served their purpose well.