San Diego County Office of Education Murals

As part of our ARTS 4 Justice program, we have been working with students from the Juvenile Court School system to design a mural installation for the San Diego County Office of Education campus.

“A lot of people have the misconception that when kids are in the Juvenile Court School system, they got there by bad behavior. In fact this system serves as a catch all for kids that may have slipped through the cracks of regular schools. Many kids come from homelessness and have families that move around a lot. Some kids have to take care of siblings, so they miss a lot of school. Kids end up in these court mandated schools for myriad of reasons, yet many in society may write them off as bad or trouble makers and attach negative labels to them.

In our project, we looked at identity by using words that truly describe our kids. These words were chosen by the kids from words they came up with and words used by people that truly know and love them.

It's exciting to have these great art installations as focal points on the SDCOE campus as a reminder that all students are equally valuable and some that may have gotten lost somehow, somewhere along the way, can still shine through when given a chance.”

This project is led by teaching artist, Rob Tobin, in the photo below you can see our previous work with the SDCOE.

Check out some of the process sketches and designs below: