Officials at a San Diego-area charter school have ordered an artist to make changes to a mural painted during a fundraiser, after receiving complaints about an image in the painting — President Trump’s head on a spear.
MAAC Community Charter School Director Tommy Ramirez said in a statement that the artwork “does not align with our school’s philosophy of non-violence,” according to media reports.
“We have been in communication with the artist — who has agreed to modify the artwork — to better align with the school’s philosophy,” Ramirez said.
Sasha Andrade painted the mural in conjunction with students and other invited artists as part of the school’s annual scholarship fundraiser. The school has since covered that part of the mural with plywood, according to reports.
Andrade posted a photo of the uncovered mural on Facebook, writing, “They can try to #censor it but here it is guys!”
Andrade said in a subsequent Facebook post that she has received hateful messages and threats over the mural, and shared screenshots of the messages from other Facebook users.
“The only thing this man has done, bring racism and white supremacists to hide behind their computers and harass anyone who does not support trump,” she wrote. “It irritates me and saddens me that this is the country we are living in full of hate and fascist people.”
