"Hail Provo High" and "Fight on you Thunderbirds" - the school songs at Provo and Timpview high schools - are typical mainstream high school songs.
Independence High School's theme song is a different. But then so is the school.At Provo's alternative high school, students sing "One Tin Soldier," a song made popular in the 1970s movie "Billy Jack." It's about a school for runaways that people dislike because it didn't seem to fit into society.
"The whole show is based on the concept of how these community people would not accept this school and how they would put down the kids . . . And at the very end, the community had a problem and they needed the school, and the school of course rose to the occasion," said Independence Principal Greg Hudnall. The community then came to accept the school.
Hudnall is looking for acceptance, too. He wants to build a new alternative high school in southwest Provo.
He's finding all kinds of opposition. Residents don't want the school in their neighborhood for a variety of reasons. Hudnall says the best site for the new building is on six acres of Provo School District-owned property at 950 S. 1100 West.
The current school at 350 W. 500 South does not adequately meet the needs of its 300 students. The building has one restroom. There is no hot water. Lunch is served on sewing machines and science tables. The roof leaks, and the electrical system is poor. There is an office in the boiler room.
Those problems might be easier to overcome than some of the challenges Hudnall faces in trying to get the new school.
Residents fear wild teenage drivers and increased traffic will make the streets unsafe for pedestrians. They also say the school will disrupt the rural atmosphere of the area.
Hudnall, who lives in southwest Provo, acknowledges that those concerns are valid. But the underlying feeling that residents don't want alternative high school students in the neighborhood because they're perceived as "bad kids" angers Hudnall."The thing that frustrates me is they're stereotyping my kids and they're stereotyping the school," he said, "and they're not really giving us a chance. And to say that every kid in my school is a loser, a failure, a druggie - that's not fair."
Hudnall has listened to adults bad-mouth and sometimes even badger some of his students when they have stood to defend themselves and their school during Provo School Board meetings. It's taking a toll on him.
"It's frustrating in the sense that when people attack my kids, they're attacking me because this school's my second life," Hudnall said.
His second life hasn't been easy lately.
"It's been tough because I even have people in my neighborhood who have concerns," said Hudnall, who is a bishop in the LDS Church. "I have people in my ward who don't understand."
He's received negative telephone calls and comments from people who don't like what he's trying to do.
"It's been hard emotionally for my wife and children," he said.
Of himself Hudnall said, "I'm tired. I'm tired of having to defend myself."
Though weary from the constant battle to get a new school, Hudnall says he's not burned out. He said he's in the fight for the duration, despite other tempting job offers and thoughts of quitting.
"For me to pick up and walk away because I feel like I've lost this war . . . that's not in it for me," he said. Hudnall said he intends to be the Independence principal for the next 20 years.
Regardless of what happens with the school, Hudnall knows how he wants to be remembered.
"I think that if were to die, I'd want my epitaph to say that Greg Hudnall lived on the edge, he was willing to risk and he cares about kids."
Maybe the saying could be inscribed on the statue of a tin soldier.