Over winter break of this year, the Franklin Administration of Restroom Tracking (F.A.R.T.) club painted a mural of Frida Kahlo in the performing arts wing’s gender neutral bathroom. However, by Jan. 24, the new mural had been heavily vandalized, including multiple tags by ‘GAY BOWSER,’ along with a message calling for the mirror previously up in the bathroom to be returned.
F.A.R.T. club’s president and founder, Aidan Moellering, says that he is frustrated with people drawing over something that took so much time to make — easily 50 hours of painting alone — and added that it will take janitors many hours to clean.
The club had planned the mural months ahead of time, with design work starting in November of 2023, and two weeks of actual painting starting the week before winter break and ending before school came back into session. Genavie Reyes, the SUN site coordinator at Franklin, says she “would have thought that this would be something students would want to keep” and was disappointed in the mural’s defacing.
In addition to leading F.A.R.T. club, Moellering is also the head of the new Beautification Student Senate Committee, which includes Sanora Bruin, F.A.R.T. club’s chief artist. Reyes, who works closely with Student Senate, says the purpose of the committee is “to make the building feel like home … so that when [students] come into the building [they’re] really proud of what [they] see, and don’t feel like it’s sterile.” She expands, “The goal is to have students be a part of the everyday halls they walk in.”
Vandalism is not a new issue at Franklin — many readers will likely be familiar with the prevalent tagging, messages, and even art adorning most of Franklin’s walls, especially in the bathrooms. Bruin believes that the unique lack of supervision that comes of having no cameras or staff in restrooms is probably part of the reason the F.A.R.T. club’s mural was so quickly and thoroughly vandalized.
Moellering says for him the ultimate goal is to not to see empty walls and instead have murals everywhere; he sees the Frida Kahlo mural as just the start. Bruin is currently pushing to get the Beautification Committee on board with chalkboard walls in bathrooms. This effort would provide an outlet for what has previously been vandalism, aiming to lessen the cost to custodians’ time and the school’s money. Bruin also mentions that F.A.R.T club is currently in the early stages of a second mural, the location of which is, as of the interview, still being discussed. However, there is a strong likelihood one of the library walls beneath the study hall will be used. Moellering concludes by encouraging anyone interested in contributing to join F.A.R.T club or the Beautification Committee, and reminds everyone that the school covers all costs of making murals. He elaborates, saying if a club is interested in creating its own mural, the Beautification Committee would be more than happy to help.
