Glacier High School is inviting students to help clean up graffiti and garbage marring the nearby pedestrian tunnel that runs underneath the U.S. 93 Bypass.

The tunnel, which was painted by KALICO through the Rails to Trails Tunnel Vision Project, was reportedly graffitied last week. The vandalism prompted school officials to meet with the Northwest Montana Rails to Trails group on Jan. 10 to discuss ways of addressing offensive graffiti in the tunnel.  

Glacier High School Principal Brad Holloway said he intends to give students monthly opportunities to clean up the tunnel. Cleaning supplies would be supplied by the school.  

“We want to get our kids over there, have them be part of the solution, part of the cleanup,” he said.  

Community volunteers in the past have taken it upon themselves to scrub off the paint.  

At around noon on Jan. 6, a regular user of the trail spotted somebody with a can of spray paint in the tunnel and alerted authorities. School Resource Officer Garrett Smith responded but was unable to confirm that the graffiti was sprayed at the time of the report. No suspect or suspects were identified in connection to the most recent instance of vandalism.  

Holloway said that by the time Smith was at the tunnel, there was a group of students, former students and unknown people in the tunnel.    

Photos sent to the Daily Inter Lake following the bout of vandalism showed a racial slur and vulgar language targeting an individual sprayed in pink paint over seemingly older graffiti.   

The tunnel is no stranger to defacement. Vandals left antisemitic and homophobic graffiti on its walls in 2021. Smith also said graffiti began popping up last summer, “and then it kind of just compounded itself. And now there’s considerable amount of graffiti on top of the street art.” 

The tunnel remained riddled with vulgar language as of Thursday. 

Many students use the tunnel during lunch to get to Frugals and other stores in the area, Holloway said. Because it is off campus property, punishing vandals, if they were students, becomes tricky.  

“In an off-campus situation, the best that we can do from that, though, is work with law enforcement,” Holloway said. 

In the spring and fall, the school does a campus cleanup, which Holloway plans to expand to include the tunnel.  

Holloway wants students to understand that while the tunnel is not on school property, it’s a clear extension of the facility.  

“We want that to be safe for students at lunch or before school and after school,” he said.  

Holloway said he is looking into installing cameras at the tunnel but is unsure about the logistics given they would be set up off school property.   

“A lot of this is reactive at this point,” Holloway said. “You want to be able to stop it, but sometimes things like this, you’re reacting until you catch somebody.” 

Reporter Jack Underhill can be reached at 758-4407 or [email protected]. 

    Vandalism inside a tunnel along a multiuse trail in north Kalispell on Thursday, Jan. 16. (Casey Kreider/Daily Inter Lake)
 Casey Kreider