Update: This morning, Creighton Prep football players Easton Stick and Michael Emode brought a $500 dollar donation for Liz’s Legacy to Principal Maryanne Ricketts.

“Easton Stick and Michael Emode were upset by the actions of the students who vandalized the Courage rock by our football field Wednesday night,” said Athletic Director Tom Kerkman via an email to the Lance. “After doing some research on Liz Karnes they better understood the importance of Liz’s contributions to education and our school district. Also, they learned the extraordinary courage Liz had as she fought her battle with cancer.  They talked to the Prep students, collected money during their lunch periods, and came over today to apologize for the vandalism with the donation.  It’s nice to have some good come out of the bad.”

Original Story:

Last night, the ‘Courage’ rock at the entrance to Westside’s football field was covered in blue paint, and ‘Prep’ was spray-painted in white on part of the track. The vandalism is believed to have occurred around 11 p.m. Westside Athletic Director Tom Kerkman said the administration is working to find suspects.

Kerkman hopes students will take the vandalism as motivation on the field, and not try to respond off the field.

“Hopefully we can find out who did it and prosecute them, and do what we can,” Kerkman said. “Our thing is that we just don’t want our students to retaliate. That’s not who we are, that’s not how I want our athletic department – and I know that’s not how our administrative team wants our school to be – represented. We would do the same if somebody did that to their school, we would try to find out who did what they did.”

The ‘Courage’ rock was donated by Liz’s Legacy in memory of Liz Karnes’ courage in her battle with ovarian cancer. Karnes was an advocate for education in Nebraska. She spent 17 years on the District 66 School Board. In April of 2003, Karnes passed away. A commemorative rock was donated that same year and placed inside the football stadium.

Football players voiced their anger upon hearing the news.

“I just printed off a bunch of pictures of the rock and a few copies of Liz’s story and everything, and we are putting them up in the locker room after school today,” said varsity football player junior Alex Zimmerman. “If you know Liz’s story, the rock is pretty significant because she lived ten years longer than she was supposed to because she wanted to see all of her daughters graduate from high school. We touch the rock every time we go out on the field so symbolically we can be as courageous as she was, so it’s a pretty big deal. I’m not sure I can put into words my frustration with what they did, so I’m just going to leave it on the field.”