By Rowan H.
Willowbrook Park has been infamous at Mountain Range High School, best known for all of the crazy things that happen there. As of this recent school year, the park is almost completely dead and silent… What happened?
Willowbrook Park, also known by students as “Stoner," was a space for young smokers for years at MRHS (whether or not smoking is a good thing is beside the point). There have been the occasional fights and such, but in recent years, Willowbrook has hit a new low. It started as early as September that there were reports of theft. An anonymous student at MRHS and frequent park-goer says that students would literally flip other students’ unattended bags and backpacks upside down and take what they wanted. In early November, a black Kia Soul was stolen from the apartments across the street and very quickly crashed into the woods near Silver Hills Middle School.
The insanity and chaos was punctuated with littering, broken glass on the ground, stolen fire extinguishers, vandalism, trash can fires, and a propane tank exploding in the woods near the schools.
However, even these seem like nothing compared to the fights. Fights have always been an issue at Stoner, but as early as the end of 2023, people started getting attacked by groups of people and it began to spiral into utter brutality. Another student at MRHS who wished to remain anonymous had a horrifying story to tell.
Near the end of 2024, a student from a nearby Middle School went to the park and was assaulted by a group of people who were allegedly drinking. The MRHS student witnessed this and stepped in the next day and they started fighting. As a result, the student was severely injured and taken to the ER.
About 2 months after this student’s fight, Mountain Range Principal Tiffany Hansen sent an email explaining how another student at Silver Hills was almost kidnapped and robbed around the stop sign near Willowbrook by a man in his car.
Shortly after, there was a man trying to enter Mountain Range facilities. He was quickly stopped by the school admin and was reportedly not cooperative. This led to police getting involved.
After all of this violence and chaos piled up uncontrollably, police finally had enough. For the rest of 2024 and early 2025, cops were parked on the side, riding around the park and apartments, and even parked directly on the basketball court. The park was heavily guarded and watched at all times.
This, along with widespread fear and cops keeping the whole park cleared out, “Stoner” was back to just being Willowbrook Park again.
Many students doubt the park will ever “come back." One stated, “I think it really depends on how people treat the park. And other people.”
Another MRHS student agrees: “I think people need to have some common decency.”
One MRHS senior shares their perspective: “The park was not always like that. It used to be pretty chill during the day, really. People used to be pretty friendly. I don’t know what happened, it just nosedived itself all the way into the grave.”
However, after all of the chaos, Willowbrook became a safer place for families and their pets to be around; the rainbow after the storm. Perhaps it is a good thing that it is gone.