The San Francisco Board of Education unanimously voted to have a high school to paint over a mural of George Washington after they determined the mural contained “violent imagery” and was “degrading.”
“It’s always an issue when anyone wants to remove or cover or displace art,” Board Vice President Mark Sanchez told the Washington Post on Friday. “But there are countervailing issues we had to look at as well. We believe students shouldn’t be exposed to violent imagery — that it’s degrading.”
Russian-born artist Victor Arnautoff painted the mural in 1936 as part of a New Deal arts program. One of the paintings displayed in George Washington High School shows the first president standing by a dead Native American as he points to frontiersmen. Another painting shows Washington at Mount Vernon among his slaves.
An advisory group called the mural “offensive” and recommended its removal at an estimated cost of $600,000.
Sanchez said the high cost was “reparations” for past wrongs by Americans.
The board wanted the mural painted over because it cannot be moved and is ‘a permanent, integral part of the wall it was painted on.”
Lope Yap Jr., the vice president of the high school’s alumni association, said his group plans to sue the school board to stop the destruction.
“We’ll use every tactic available,” he said.
