Seen As An Emotional Tripwire For Some Students, NHS 12/14 Tribute Mural Covered Over
Newtown’s school district recently covered up a student-created mural, painted roughly two years ago at Newtown High School, after reports of students being affected by the image’s contents, a memorial of the events at Sandy Hook Elementary School on 12/14.
The mural was approved by the high school’s principal at the time it was created, and it was painted on a wall at the top of a flight of stairs during the 2013-14 school year. The mural has since been covered, and roughly two months ago a high school student created an online petition to uncover it.
The discussion of the mural began last school year.
“I’ve made a commitment from the day I came into the district,” Superintendent of Schools Joseph V. Erardi, Jr, said on Wednesday, January 27, “that if there is anything I can do to support families who continue to recover and were most effected by 12/14, that has been my consistent practice.”
Near the end of last school year, Dr Erardi said the mural was brought to his attention for being problematic to students, “as they really struggled with the daily walk through and how they had endured 12/14.”
Dr Erardi said efforts to find a solution between the mural’s message and intent and comforting students affected were never meant to “demean or marginalize the hard work that went into the mural.”
Lindsay Fuori designed and created the mural for her Junior/Senior Project, a course at the high school, and presented it at the start of January 2014 as part of the program. Then NHS student Mairin Hayes assisted in the effort to make it.
The mural depicts a dream catcher with clouds, footprints, 26 green beads, and the words, “In loving memory” and “12-14-12.”
“Considering myself an artist, in time of stress and trauma it felt natural to turn to art,” Lindsay, now a student at Boston University, told The Bee in 2014.
Creating the image of the dream catcher was one of her first ideas.
“I wanted the piece to be something students would understand and could connect to, but not something that would have a negative connotation. I wanted the mural to heal, not hurt. That’s where the mentality of the dream catcher came in. I fell in love with the idea that the mural could be in memoriam but in a peaceful way,” Lindsay said in 2014.
Last month Lindsay said the mural’s original intent is still “100 percent relevant.”
“I created this mural for the entire community, but especially for students who went to Sandy Hook[School],” Lindsay continued. “For students who did attend [Sandy Hook School] there is an additional layer of distress and confusion as we have the memory of a horrific tragedy in the same place we grew up in… That is why I chose a dream catcher to be the focus of the design; one of the most common symptoms of posttraumatic stress are intrusive memories — often in the form of nightmares — and dream catchers are believed to catch bad dreams but let good thoughts flow through and back to the dreamer.”
Based on responses she had on the mural from students and faculty, Lindsay said she believes it was successful as a respectful remembrance of those lost and a mode of healing.
Discussion And Agreement
Lindsay learned of the discussion to remove the mural in April 2014. Eventually, Lindsay said a meeting was arranged for the summer, with Mairin Hayes and others in attendance.
“Over the course of the summer we met a few times and exchanged many e-mails. In the end I agreed to temporarily cover the words and date [“In Loving Memory” and “12/14/12] with some sort of temporary plaque,” Lindsay said in an e-mail in December, adding that when it came time to apply the temporary covering a “lengthy debate” began on whether a temporary covering would be enough.
Lindsay later agreed to cover the words and date with paint, “knowing that those three words were not what gave the piece meaning, only dedication. If it meant that the remainder of the painting — the substance of the piece — would remain untouched, I was willing to make this compromise. One week before the 2015-16 school year began Mairin and I painted over the words and date.”
Mairin, now a student at the University of Connecticut, said, in an e-mail in December that covering the words and date was a “happy solution” for both parties at the time, and there was an understanding that if the issue of the mural needed to be revisited again she and Lindsay would be included in the dialogue.
Mairin learned the mural had been covered through a text message from a friend.
“This was never a piece that was being painted for the sake of art, or resume-building,” Mairin said. “It was a healing process for both of us, something beautiful that we were able to contribute to the community as we expressed our pain, resilience, and love for our former elementary school.”
Creating the mural, Mairin said, was about giving back, healing, beauty, and preserving memories. She also said it means a lot to her to know the NHS community was positively impacted by the mural, but if students are made uncomfortable she understands the need to take that into account.
“Lindsay and I worked hard to create an uplifting and thoughtful tribute, and should the Change.org petition not be recognized, it is my hope that our mural will eventually be uncovered and restored to its former beauty,” said Mairin, about an online petition created by NHS student Savannah Mather in November.
When she started her online petition Savannah said she was unaware of the reason why a “blank white wall” had taken the place of the “beautiful Sandy Hook mural.”
“The superintendent has reached out to the families at NHS explaining that the mural was covered up in order to not be a trigger for emotional distress for those students at school who are deeply affected by the tragedy. I completely understand this reasoning, and explanation. However, I started a petition about three days ago to try and get our mural uncovered,” Savannah said.
A Reaction
Savannah said later in the month that a number of students and parents she heard from were concerned about the mural being covered up. Covering the mural, Savannah said, could also cause students stress.
Covering the words and date, Dr Erardi said this week, was a starting point to see if there was further reaction from students. He weighed the needs of students affected by the mural and the needs of students affected by covering the mural for his decision, he said.
The superintendent said he would never want a mural to be the reason students felt discomfort in a building or were unable to attend NHS.
“Thus the decision that I made that the mural needed to be covered, which it is presently,” said Dr Erardi, adding that the mural is covered with sheet rock after checking with the local fire marshal.
The mural, Dr Erardi said, was recently discussed on social media until a “very courageous high school student shared explicit information” on the perspective of the students affected.
After speaking with legal counsel, Dr Erardi said no rights were violated in covering the mural.
“We have jurisdiction to take action like we took,” said the superintendent.
Dr Erardi also said a private donor has offered to support a new mural and opportunity for the original artist “to come in to represent her talent in a different way.”
He was waiting for a response on Wednesday, January 27.
“I’m very sensitive to the artist and her hard work and her co-producer who spent time doing it,” said Dr Erardi.
The lesson, Dr Erardi said, from the entire incident is that decisions are made with the best intentions, yet three years out from the tragedy ongoing recovery efforts are unique to individuals.
“These are the really difficult decisions that need to be made,” said Dr Erardi, “and I think that worse than a bad decision is no decision. It’s part of my job, on occasion, that you have to make unpopular decisions, and I continue to believe I made the right decision… I always have to put student needs first.”
An Offer To The Artist
On January 27, Lindsay said she was offered to paint the mural “of a content and theme of the administration’s choosing, which is very different from creating a mural of my own design.”
“I created the dream catcher mural with a pure intent and passion,” Lindsay said, adding the mural was a time-consuming and emotional task.
“After seeing the way my work has been treated I am not interested in painting another mural for Newtown High School,” Lindsay continued. “While I appreciate the anonymous donor who offered to fund another mural, giving my time to paint another mural would be validating the covering of the dream catcher. Given how I have been treated the past year and the promises that were made to me and broken, I have no assurance that another painting wouldn’t be covered up as well. As it is, I have spent copious amounts of time meeting with the principal and superintendent to work out a compromise and paint over areas of the mural they wanted changed. That time, effort, and compromise was futile given that the mural was covered up anyway.”
“The broad picture,” Dr Erardi said, is that everyone in town was affected by 12/14, and the level of recovery differs within the student population.
The students directly affected by the events are aging through the district. District staff, he said, will be moved appropriately to address student needs as the student population directly affected ages.
“Even for next year you will see an enhanced number of mental health providers at the intermediate school,” said Dr Erardi, adding more opportunities will also be available for students who need help at the middle school and the high school.
The mental health plan was vetted across the district before it was brought before the Board of Education, Dr Erardi said, adding later that the presented plan to support students with mental health needs, to him, is “sacrosanct.” He also said he made that clear to the school board when presenting the plan.