Faith

School Backtracks After Banning Student‘s Mural Depicting ’Traditional Marriage’

A student mural at Pilgrim High School in Warwick, Rhode Island, was reportedly deemed inappropriate and banned by a public high school due to its depiction of a man, woman and child holding hands. The couple, clearly engaged in a straight, monogamous relationship, are seen standing with what appears to be their child.

Was there something else more sinister presented in the painting, you ask — an offensive message or an inappropriate character attribute? According to news reports, the school painted over this portion of the mural out of fear that it would offend people who live alternative lifestyles.

Pilgrim High School Will Now Allow Traditional Marriage Mural Section

A pencil sketch of the mural in question (Image Credit: WPRO)

WPRO is reporting that the mural was intended to depict the life of a man. Liz Bierendy, the 17-year-old who painted it, explained that it signified the man’s marriage and the raising of his child with the woman (marriage and the raising of children are common experiences for millions of men in America and across the globe).

Following the uproar over the image, Warwick Public Schools’ superintendent Peter Horoschak stepped in. In a press release, he explained that “some of the members of the Pilgrim High School community suggested that the depiction of a young man’s development from boyhood through adulthood as displayed may not represent the life experiences of many of the students at Pilgrim High School.” WPRO continues:

According to the release, the assistant principal approached the Bierendy after the concern was raised from the school and “asked her to look at other ways to show the outcome of the subject’s progression to adulthood.”

After consulting other administrators, Superintendent Horoschak asked the assistant principal to meet with the student again and discuss her views on the proposed changes to the mural. The assistant principal reported that the student “preferred the original idea” however she “would take the weekend to think about any changes to the original sketch.” Horoschak asked that the Bierendy’s ideas be respected and “that she be allowed to finish the mural as she visualized it.”

The Providence Journal corroborates this story, reporting that Bierendy ”would be allowed to paint what she originally envisioned.”

HotAir.com’s Tina Korbe penned a piece for The New York Post in which she railed against the debacle, writing:

This is what multiculturalism has come to: A student artist who proposed a mural for a Rhode Island high school came under heavy pressure to change her design because it upheld the ideal of traditional marriage. [...]

…the reaction to Bierendy’s mural underscores society’s alarming tendency to adjust standards to fit the way we live, rather than adjust the way we live to fit standards.

My first thought when I read about Bierendy was of the elephant-dung-smeared image of the Virgin Mary that once hung in the Brooklyn Museum of Art. When Christians complained, the common refrain was, “What’s the matter? It’s just art.” One might ask Bierendy’s critics now: “What’s the matter? It’s just art.”

In the end, the student will be able to complete the project with her original vision in mind. School Committee Chairwoman Bethany Furtado has joined in to say that the order to paint over the traditional marriage portion of the artwork should have never happened.

(H/T: WPRO)

Comments (96)

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  • shimauma
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:45pm

    The artist obviously forgot to add the naked binge drinking scene where the young man has a bi-curious encounter, after which he is full of guilt and realizes what a stupid choice that was.

    Report Post » shimauma  
    • pavepaws
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 5:42pm

      D*mn schools. Time to change the school administration. Anyone in the high school that authorized this should go.

      Report Post »  
    • Al Gator
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:06pm

      As I said in an earlier post on this subject, all the child had to do to immunize her art, was to paint the family as black.

      Her only sin was, she portrayed a white family.

      Disagree? Had she painted a black family, and it got painted over, the JustUs brothers would have been “down” in NY minute.

      Report Post » Al Gator  
    • MAMMY_NUNN
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:39pm

      Funny thing when the unions and the like get their views known and in the news they are quick to recant their positions. They always cut their own throats.

      Report Post »  
    • mtcountrygrl
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 7:27pm

      Homeschool!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

      Report Post »  
    • Patrick Henry II
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 7:36pm

      Really disgusting seeing just how low this school has sunk. Note the name: Pilgrim High School. I would like to remind all of you about the Monument if you saw Monumental Movie.

      Report Post » Patrick Henry II  
    • ICEDRAGONNITE
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 8:07pm

      Get rid of the UNIONS, NEA. and all the liberal cra*. Turn the schools back over tot the locals. Get the overpaid fat as* board members gone. No pensions. They have step by step destroyed how many children? They don’t deserve a reward. Like pass them off on some other school district when caught doing something wrong.

      Report Post » ICEDRAGONNITE  
    • scottfreedom
      Posted on April 12, 2012 at 1:15am

      or banging a goat or some other 4 legged creature..plz get your kids far far away from public ed. it’s sick and dangerous..

      Report Post »  
    • MittensKittens
      Posted on April 12, 2012 at 6:39pm

      not surprising, it happened in Rhode Island

      Report Post » MittensKittens  
  • uisignorant
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:37pm

    I have the RIGHT not to be offended!!!
    Liberalism IS a mental disease.

    Report Post »  
    • Kankokage
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:54pm

      To all liberals, homosexuals, bisexuals, transgenders, beastials, etc:

      Some people are straight.
      Get over it.

      Report Post » Kankokage  
    • Jaycen
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 5:13pm

      So many adults are cowards and followers. They’ll say or do anything to avoid being singled out, complained at, or made to look “bad” in front of others. So much weakness in our country right now, and so few leaders.

      So little courage.

      Report Post » Jaycen  
    • dumbgrunt33
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:32pm

      @Kank… I know what your saying but…. MOST people are straight….

      Report Post »  
    • StonyBurk
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:47pm

      When I was enslaved by the Public School system (k-12) My parents were married –I had a dad and a mom–and a brother and two sisters. My Mom committed suicide when I was on orders for ‘Nam. She was going through change of life. My dad remarried. Divorced,then married again. My older brother has been married to his wife -still is. My sisters have both been married to the same man they married.
      I married and divorced then remarried .But I notice we had family similar to what this kid wanted in the mural. I am sick and tired of the “progressives” tell us we “need to accept” as the new normal. Tired of having the homosexuals that now run the public school system dictating the Lie Heather has two mommies. I am an American and it’s time America remembered Religion,Morality and Knowledge being necessary to good government and the happiness of mankind.The Founding principles.And the Christian Moral model of marriage being between one man and one woman.

      Report Post »  
  • Aerocog
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:34pm

    Okay, okay…let me just try to grasp this, they took it down because it showed a traditional family? What type of world do we live in now?

    Report Post »  
    • Right wing nut job
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 5:10pm

      One being overrun by freaks, perverts, sodomites, degenerates, pedophiles and all other manner of progressive liberal.

      Report Post » Right wing nut job  
    • Taquoshi
      Posted on April 12, 2012 at 9:08am

      This is bizarre. You can’t have pictures, drawings (including the ever popular finger gun, chicken strip shaped like a gun or anything that may vaguely resemble any kind of gun) or any kind of reference to a firearm in school (such as a pen from a firearm manufacturer) , you can’t hug, you can’t have anything that might actually be or might be mistaken for a medication, your lunch can be evaluated by Federal agents and deemed not nutritious enough, and any art work that depicts prayer or Jesus, any semblance of prayer or indication that prayer might happen have now been banned. All of the above have happened at different points in time and students have been suspended or expelled over them.

      NOW students can not draw pictures of a man, woman and a child together. Okay. When did the schools turn into prison holding camps? I missed that because our son was home schooled.

      Report Post » Taquoshi  
  • momsense
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:31pm

    Too damn bad that the painter shows a traditional family—not everyone takes it up the butt like the homos do or straps one on.

    Report Post »  
    • gperky
      Posted on April 12, 2012 at 4:26pm

      Ahhhhhhhh, but see, you aren’t looking at this the right way. This is the way our new school districts are teaching safe sex. No one ever got pregnant with a strap-on or taking it up the butt! Don’t you see just how smart the Libs are?

      Report Post » gperky  
  • Balpit
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:29pm

    What about the kid clad in a graduation gown? Wouldn’t he be considered offensive to dropouts?

    Or the kid with the guitar: wouldn‘t he be offensive to people who don’t like music or can’t play instruments well?

    And there’s a burger on the mural, too! And a pepperoni pizza! What about offending vegans?

    Report Post »  
    • Sparky101
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:55pm

      Now that the original artist must repaint the part of the mural censored by the school, and after all the young artist was put through, I think in the final rendition, the husband should also be carrying a bible. I mean why not stuff it back to them?

      Report Post »  
  • blanco5
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:28pm

    I am soooo offended!!! Where’s the transgendered couple????

    Report Post »  
  • Cavallo
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:27pm

    Eternal vigilance. They will keep attacking until they are run off or they win and crush our values into meaningless piles of goo. If you told someone 15 or even 10 years ago that schools would be banning and covering up depictions of a married man and woman as inappropriate they would have mocked you as paranoid.

    Report Post » Cavallo  
  • dietrdeb
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:26pm

    Holy Crap…this is just sickening!

    Report Post »  
    • randy
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:30pm

      the depiction of a young man’s development from boyhood through adulthood as displayed may not represent the life experiences of MANY of the students at Pilgrim High School.”

      Then you have a serious problem Pilgrim High School!
      Disgusting.
      Shine the light on these freaks!

      Report Post » randy  
  • Virginia Rebel
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:24pm

    Give them an inch and they demand a mile. I suspect they won’t be content even if they get legal gay marriage in every state. I think this school is showing us what it will be like – constant demands to remove anything that might seem like we are trying to promote marriage between a man and a woman. That, of course, could effect art, movies, advertising, TV show, all printed publications, and probably even product packaging. As Barney would say, “We need to nip this in the bud.”

    Report Post »  
    • kushisaac
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 6:55pm

      we now have a black president, are progressive blacks satisfied or have race relations gotten worse?

      Report Post »  
  • SerikFox
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:23pm

    It shows a kid growing up to have a kid – aka, the circle of life. These administrators are idiots.

    Report Post »  
  • AmazingGrace8
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:22pm

    I am surprised there is not an outrage for the actors wearing wedding bands & when the commercial is about a natural relationship between a man & woman (warning also about a 4 hr. problem that can occur while using their product) and afterwards showing a man & woman smiling & going to dinner.

    Report Post »  
    • Myron_J_Poltroonian
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 7:14pm

      On that note, the first time I saw that disclaimer, I just about “bust a gut” as the saying goes. I was thinking, through barely controllable ripples of mirth: “What an absolutely brilliant way to both drive sales through the roof and stick it to the over regulating federal nannies all at the same time.

      Report Post » Myron_J_Poltroonian  
  • Daveed
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:21pm

    That is great they retracted it, now they all need to be fired. I was thinking why is all the idiotic stuff being done and it is all propaganda, teacher union-duh? They enemy of America must gin up the LIES to gin up their base. So anything to poke American loving patriots and poke anti american traitors in our country to vote for them, using every cheap trick and using our children. The picture is a beautiful picture by the child and the child in my classroom would get an A+ and have it posted up with all the other children’s pictures of their families. Crush the bankrupt unions, abolish the fed, get rid of the income tax, get rid of the State tax, no tax on gas or food, go back to the gold standard, barricade the border USA between America and Mexico. Drill for oil, open up coal industry, nuclear energy, stop all foreign aid, America has been governed too long by people who do not love her.

    Report Post »  
  • cogit8able
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:20pm

    Holy cow? So this is what I hear their principal saying. to this poor student.. Your lifestyle is offensive.

    Report Post »  
  • MrButcher
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:17pm

    What is most disturbing about this story is not that the mural was painted over but that nuclear families consisting of a married mother and father ARE becoming a thing of the past and the exception to the rule.

    The reasons for this, I think, are very deep and reveal an exhausted culture in precipitous suicidal decline.

    America‘s and the world’s future is very bleak…

    Report Post » MrButcher  
  • Seagal45
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:15pm

    What outcry over the image? Did one whinytit complain? Would no one have said anything if he was bent over a sheep? This is madness, I don’t get it. I want my country back.

    Report Post »  
  • Tri-ox
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:15pm

    Liberals are offended by any depiction of human life which does not include pre-marital sex, abortion, OCCUpooping, “government assistance” and three-legged-gay-transgender-mixed-race-atheistic-socialist-goats demanding “free” birth-control while dancing at obama’s second inaugural ball.

    The “science” is settled – liberalism is an untreatable mental illness.

    Report Post » Tri-ox  
    • Overton Window
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:35pm

      That is undoubtedly the best response I have read about any of these over-educated, mind-numbing idiots. I am so glad my children are out of school. I would have disassembled the place and still be raving like a lunatic at the idea that anyone could even suggest something so jack-assinine!!!!!!!! Please Lord, keep me from pulling my hair out every time I hear this garbage from these so-called highly intelligent people. I hope this young girl remembers this for the rest of her life. Maybe it will make her understand how easily we lose our way and how you must stay awake and protect what is good.

      Report Post »  
  • girlnurse
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:14pm

    Lord come quickly!

    Report Post » girlnurse  
  • troymac20
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:13pm

    At least they realized their stupidity and are letting her do it her way.

    Report Post » troymac20  
  • Mark0331
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:13pm

    If it was two men fisting on public transportation it would be called art and be praised for being a ‘heroic act’….

    Report Post » Mark0331  
  • Locked
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:07pm

    Facepalm. This school was idiotic to order covering the marriage portion in the first place. Glad the mural will be painting as the student pictured it.

    Report Post »  
  • Dale
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:01pm

    I wish someone would care when I am offended.

    Report Post » Dale  
    • Dde13
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 8:24pm

      @dale
      I thought I was the only one. I get offended when our president talks and wants me to feel bad about working hard, paying taxes, loving my country, loving God, being a straight and a legal American.

      Report Post »  
  • Caballosinnombre
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:00pm

    Used to be painings of traditional themes in schools were as common as the American flag. Now both are deemed offensive, at least by the Obamarxists. Times are not changing for the better.

    Report Post »  
  • SpeckledPup
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 3:58pm

    take those filthy degenerate communists out of that school and SHOOT THEM for the obamacommie usless eaters they are.

    Report Post »  
  • bassist237
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 3:56pm

    Wow, and they let lady gaga roam free? What is this nation coming to, seriously grow up and quit saying peoples feelings might get hurt. I am so tired of this CRAP.

    Report Post » bassist237  
  • AvengerK
    Posted on April 11, 2012 at 3:53pm

    The madness of liberalism. Apparently we’re to deny reality and depict the practices of less than 2% of the population as the norm?

    Report Post »  
    • Gonzo
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 4:41pm

      We need at least one very smart, cultured, fashionable and of course humorous gay couple in every picture. I learned that from watching network TV.

      Report Post » Gonzo  
    • colt1860
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 7:12pm

      @Gonzo Ain’t it funny how Hollywood and network TV can boycott, malign and ignore Conservatives, but conservatives can’t boycott and stop watching their idols on Hellivision? We either stand and fight for our morals, or live by those of others.

      Report Post »  
    • woodyl1011fl
      Posted on April 11, 2012 at 10:38pm

      This is the state of education in America today!! Rhode Island is just represenative of rise of bigots, hate mongering Marxists revolutionaries that run the nations education establishment. Just think about the substance of the indoctination being done to the children of America by the democrat party’s revolutonary Bolshevik Marxists who hold our children by law in their totalitarian grip for indoctrination into the religious worldview of the state and enforced by our judges, embraced by the media, and applauded by the “father of lies and a murderer from the begining” and Screwtape is smiling from ear to ear. We are watching the destruction of our civilization before our eyes just many Germans saw before the last election they had in 1932. Is this our last election? Is it already fixed by BHO, the democrat party and George Soros? Looks like the DOJ is trying to make that happen!!!! Romney is not he answer he has already proven he has no moral spine.

      Report Post »  
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