A San Francisco high school is considering getting rid of a series of murals commemorating former President George Washington because a working group concluded they are traumatizing the students and local community.

One of the murals depicts Washington as a slave owner, while another shows him advocating for westward expansion next to a dead Native American, The Richmond District Blog reported. The paintings have been in the halls of the George Washington High School since it was established in 1936.

The San Francisco school district commissioned a working group to review the murals in 2018, after a heritage group proposed the school be designated a historical landmark in order to protect the murals and other historic art around the school. The group concluded the mural “traumatizes students and community members,” and recommended all of the ones related to Washington be “archived” and removed.

“We come to these recommendations due to the continued historical and current trauma of Native Americans and African Americans with these depictions in the mural that glorifies slavery, genocide, colonization, manifest destiny, white supremacy, oppression, etc.,” the group wrote in its recommendation. (Read more)

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