Messages radiate positivity
Grace Cowan, left, and Beth McHaffie helping draw chalk murals at Mountainview High School to spread positive messages and show support as the Black Lives Matter movement goes global.
Chalk murals spreading positive messages are brightening up the concrete at one Timaru school as students show support for the Black Lives Matter movement.
About 20 Mountainview High School students have put chalk to concrete on the school grounds this week to create a montage of positive messages in support of the international human rights movement.
Black Lives Matter (BLM) campaigns against violence and systematic racism towards black people.
The movement has come to the fore in past weeks following the death of black man George Floyd in the United States.
Floyd died in custody after Minnesota police officer Derek Chauvin knelt on his neck while he gasped for air, begged for help and pleaded ‘‘I can’t breathe’’, the actions prompting BLM marches and rallies throughout the world.
Mountainview’s artwork has been led by senior students head girl Beth McHaffie, head boy Jordan Hay and head of wha¯nau Tanya Smith, who arrived at school early on Monday to start the project, gathering support from their peers.
Beth said she, and her peers, had been thinking about how they could make a difference throughout the school.
‘‘We thought we could have positivity at school on a Monday.’’
They wanted to combine that positive idea with speaking up about the Black Lives Matter movement, she said.
The school’s student executive had arrived early on Monday and gathered the support of year 12 and 13 students, Beth said.
‘‘It started off with a group of 15 and grew to about 20 students who got involved.
‘‘We’ve had a lot of support from the wider school community.
‘‘We united to raise awareness to let people know they are accepted.’’
School principal Kenny Diamond said the project was an example of ‘‘students living the values we have here at school’’.
‘‘We endorse it and it was driven by students.’’
‘‘We’ve had a lot of support from the wider school community. We united to raise awareness to let people know they are accepted.’’ Beth McHaffie, head girl