On Tuesday, November 19th, Palmetto students were greeted by “#CALLINGBARRANCA” chalked onto the school grounds. The colorful words across the ground confused many of the students as they walked the halls.

“When I first saw it, I was so confused,” sophomore Alex Brown said. “I did not know what it was or where it was from. They put it all over the floor to the auditorium and I had no idea what was going on.”

Some students believed that different departments were responsible for the hashtag madness. Rumors raged as to where the curious, colorful chalk campaign came from. Other students didn’t take much notice on the chalky floors.

“I still do not know what it means,” senior Katerina Olaniel said. “I have seen things equally as weird in this school so I do not question it.”

Truth be told, Palmetto, Mr. Ron Talas’ first period film class is behind the colorful markings. They were written during first period on Tuesday, November 19th

“[Calling Barranca is] a line from a movie,” Mr. Talas said. “A 1939 Cary Grant film, ‘Only Angels Have Wings’.”

In the film “Only Angels Have Wings”, a Barranca Airways plane is flown by some pilots and ends up in flames, forcing the pilots to turn back to Barranca. The mechanic on board the plane dies in the resulting crash.

“We wanted to generate interest in film studies and an interest in old movies,” Mr. Talas said.  “and we wanted to make film studies cool and intriguing.”

Despite the positive intentions, some unexpected negative feedback came from the Palmetto community.

“I did not anticipate any negative attention from it,” Mr. Talas said. “From what I understand, a lot of negative attention came from teachers and students. At one point, some people thought that Calling Barranca was a gang.”

#CALLINGBARRANCA is not a bunch of students intentionally violating school property, yet an actual classroom lesson. Now, the original positive intentions may be put into action with all of the reaction it has received. The campaign that started with a few sticks of chalk created a buzz that had students curious.