A elementary school in White Rock will soon see a rainbow crosswalk adorning a nearby street. It’s an effort some have been working towards for the past year.
After a window at Peace Arch Elementary was vandalized a couple years ago, seeming to specifically target a pride flag, members of the school community decided to take action. Before that vandalism occurred, students at the school had participated in a flag designing contest during the school’s Pride Week.
“I had my banner up in my classroom window and sometime late at night, the window was broken and the banner we had made had been ripped,” recalled Julina Murphy, a teacher at Peace Arch Elementary, who is also the SOGI (sexual orientation and gender identity) representative for the school.
“We were upset, obviously, as a class, as a school.”
Murphy refused to let the incident have a long-lasting impact on herself or the students. Instead, they patched up the ripped flag with stickers and bandages decorated in rainbows and placed the flag in another available window.
“That just kind of showed me that we’re not going to be stopped, we’re just going to come back stronger,” Murphy said.
The vandalism also spurred the teacher to do more, inspiring the idea for a rainbow crosswalk outside the school. So she got to work.
At a cost of $20,000, the teacher knew that getting the funds for the crosswalk would be a challenge for the public school, so she enlisted the help of the community around her.
The City of White Rock said they would donate half the funds, if the school could arrange the remaining $10,000, which they achieved. White Rock Pride Society donated $7,500 for the project and the school, including the Parental Advisory Committee, organized the rest.
Murphy’s goal is to get the ball rolling on the project and complete it in the months to come.
“Schools are a place for everybody. Everybody should feel safe at school. Everybody should have an adult that they feel comfortable talking to,” she said.
“It’s on the street so we’re all taking care of this place together.”