The year was 1976. It was the nation’s bicentennial. It was the year Independence High School opened its doors and it was the year a tradition found its home.

Throughout the nearly thirty years Independence High School has set atop the hill we have prided ourselves on our ability to remember the past and embrace the future, lay aside petty differences and each year work as the most cohesive student body ever fashioned in these walls.

That tradition still carries today; approaching thirty years of age Independence High School still both beckons and challenges its progressive student body. We’ve welcomed the good times and triumphed over the bad. We reigned in a new millennium. We’ve witnessed our nation surmount atrocities and experience profound elation. America’s future has walked these halls time and time again.

Through all the years, through all the moments, through the laughter and the tears, our victories and our defeats, our school’s spirit has endured the test of time like no other. It is the spirit of a patriot. It is our desire for freedom, our will to succeed, our determination to overcome, and our heritage of harmony.

We the students, of Independence High School, vow to never lose sight of our beloved tradition. We will never misplace our prized heritage and we pledge ourselves to, by no means, let anything stand in the face of our spirit.

The patriots of yesterday walked these halls with an incomprehensible sense of pride. Make no mistake of the patriots of tomorrow. The spirit carries on.

It’s choice, not chance, that determines our destiny.