Plano Senior High Removed the Memorial Garden Where Evan Johnson’s Family Planted a Tree, and 1,667 People Have Signed a Petition to Bring It Back

The Memorial Wall and Garden at Plano Senior High School in Texas is gone, taken down during a multimillion-dollar campus renovation, and the families of students it honored say nobody told them first. A petition asking the school district to put a new one in place had 1,667 verified signatures when checked on Nov. 12. Plano ISD says the memorial items are in storage and that the removal is temporary.

The Tree and the Stone Raised for Evan Johnson

According to CBS Texas, the Memorial Wall and Garden honored students and staff who had died, and it had served as a place of remembrance for years. It held plaques and a tree planted in memory of Evan Johnson, a former student.

Johnson’s mother, Leslie Cherryholmes, wrote in the petition’s text that her son was a junior at the school when he died in December 2014. His friends and family raised money for a tree in the garden, she wrote, and a large stone with a plaque was placed near it. The plaque read, “Don’t be afraid to live life.”

“Over the years, that tree grew tall and beautiful,” Cherryholmes wrote, adding that it has since been destroyed.

Zackaria Rabah Says Families Were Never Notified

The petition was started by Zackaria Rabah, whose brother Gabriel Rabah, who died in 2016, is among those the memorial honored. Rabah told CBS Texas, “They tore down this memorial without any notice, notifying any families.”

He said the district has no plans to restore the memorial, according to CBS Texas, which did not report a date for the removal.

What Plano ISD Says Happened to the Memorials

In its statement to CBS Texas, Plano ISD said, “The memorials have been stored during construction,” and called the removal temporary. The district also said it is working with families on next steps.

The school’s renovation answers page says “Campus memorial items, including artifacts from the memorial garden, were removed and stored.” It adds that leaders are “developing a plan to recognize those previously honored” and that more information will go to the school community “as plans move forward.” The page does not say what the new recognition will look like or when it will happen.

Four Requests in the Petition

Created Oct. 6, 2026, the petition asks Plano ISD to “commit to designing and installing a new, permanent memorial.” It lists four specific requests:

• Publicly acknowledge that the memorial was removed.
• Form a community committee.
• Commit to a timeline and dedicated funding.
• Place the new memorial prominently on the renovated campus.

The Change.org page showed 1,667 verified signatures and said 66 people had signed in the past week. It also notes that the petition starter posted an update two days earlier, though the text of that update was not visible.

A Renovation That Runs Into 2029

CBS Texas described the project as a multimillion-dollar renovation. The school’s renovation updates page lays out phases that run from 2025 to 2029. It says, “All students and staff will return to the fully renovated Plano Senior High campus in August 2028,” and that “The project is set to conclude by February 2029.” A student-run site, Wildcat Tales, reported in August 2025 that the first phases began in the 2025-26 school year and would continue through 2028.

The page describes the work building by building. Athletics construction was set to finish by October 2026, followed by a Building B renovation in 2026-27 while students and staff move temporarily to Building H, the current Haggard Middle School. Building C, which holds the dining areas, kitchen and library, is being demolished and rebuilt from 2026 to 2028, and Building A is renovated in 2027-28. Building H is then demolished for a tennis court complex.

The renovation updates page does not mention the Memorial Wall and Garden, so its timeline does not say when a replacement or restored memorial could return. For now, the families’ request and the district’s storage plan sit side by side, with no published date to connect them.

This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.

Image: Michal Klajban – CC BY-SA 4.0/Wikimedia Commons