This is Davey Jones, a BFG kind of punk-rocking sweetheart. He is the perfect fulcrum of town and country, effortlessly toggling between shredding on his guitar and fly-fish hiking in the Catskill range. He’s articulate, sharp, self-possessed, and very generous (read: he laughs at my jokes). Davey Jones showed up here with his guitar case and karate gi slung over his back a few years ago, and he’s been in a flow state ever since. He says that after he arrived he “became more comfortable with who I am; I don’t hide anything anymore.” He shed some gratuitous inhibition and unleashed his inner beast (in a good way). He says he’d “shut down” at his previous school, but at HVSS he let that sh*t go and let that hair grow. He played the guitar like a demon (a good demon). He broke his glasses and taped them back together with duck tape, and kept playing his guitar. Davey’s mother is from Scotland, and I asked him if he’d have joined William Wallace’s rebel army (cause that’s my comment about Scotland). He said, “now, as a Sudbury student, I do believe I would.” Wow, I said. Can we take credit for healing your soul, too? “Definitely.” That’s what Davey Jones said.
Davey was nominated to be JC Clerk in December of his first year, and he’s served as Clerk 3 times subsequently. He says, “I always enjoy it. For one thing, I like knowing what’s going on in the school. I appreciate that the JC makes it possible for people to feel there’s something to support and protect your freedom. It offers a more constructive way to work through things.” Otherwise, Davey likes to tramp the hills fishing, hiking and chewing on grass. We like to picture him lying on his back in the weeds next to a gurgling brook and closing his eyes while a trout sizzles over a little woodfire. Davey Jones, you are the stuff of legends, like a wild vagabond magic musician of the Mississippi Valley. We think you’re worth writing novels about. We think you’re a little goofy and extremely worthy. Thank you for joining us, and taking care of your community, and for laughing at our jokes.