Should Certain Art Be Censored In Upstate New York Schools?

For as long as humans have roamed the earth, we've made art. starting with simple cave drawings, we eventually began to create sprawling masterpieces and intricate works that would define who we are as a species.

Art is meant to disturb the comfortable and comfort the disturbed, Cesar A. Cruz once said, so should schools attempt to challenge their students, or keep them in their comfortability?

Get our free mobile app

Inappropriate Art in Schools

A teacher in Upstate New York has come under fire for attempting to teach art... kind of. At Case Middle School in Watertown, a teacher named Bridgette Gates was trying to teach her students about more modern art, and directed them to the Keith Haring Foundation website, where they could view the artists work for themselves and sketch their own renditions in his style.

Unfortunately for Gates, several works on this website are sexually explicit, showing genitalia and sexual acts. This, in turn, infuriated the parents, who saw this as a teacher exposing their students to pornography.

Should This Be Punished?

The major issue in this case is a lack of communication. Much of Haring's artwork is more than acceptable for children, to the point where the website students were directed to has a designated "Kids" section to view appropriate art.

Unfortunately, Grant did not specify for her students to look at this subsection, and as such, they were exposed to graphic illustrations. Grant has been placed on administrative leave, and has ended her career as an Art teacher, instead focusing on English now.