Wheeling High artist claims censorship

Hannah Park thought her teachers could take a joke.

"I always wanted to do a funny piece," said Park, a Wheeling High School junior and advanced art student. "And I thought Mr. Lopez has a sense of humor so I drew him. Turns out everyone takes things too seriously."

Park's work is a pencil drawing of Principal Laz Lopez in front of a background of American flags, promoting the school's upcoming name change from Wheeling High School to Wheeling High School Math, Science and Technology Academy.

"Principal Lopez here," he is drawn saying, "from Wheeling High School (one of the best schools in America) soon to be math and science academy. Peace out -Lopez."

And here's the funny part, according to Park -- she's given Lopez an exaggerated handlebar mustache.

"It's just a joke," said Park, whose political statement behind the piece is her opposition to the name change. She believes it excludes art and English students.

Park -- who worked on the piece for three weeks -- said the school excluded it from the prestigious Harper art show in November because they didn't like her drawing Lopez or her commentary on the school's name change.

In protest, she got 447 people to join her Facebook page "Wheeling High School Censors Art" and got a bunch of her friends to wear fake mustache stickers to school in December.

John Aldworth is the division head of Wheeling's English and Fine Arts department. He said Park's piece wasn't kept out of the art show because it was a picture of Lopez with a mustache.

"Hannah is a very talented artist and in fact she has other art pieces that were submitted to the show," Aldworth said. "This one simply didn't meet the criteria."

School authorities said 45 pieces from Wheeling High School were submitted to the Harper show, which represented about 20 percent of all the student artwork Wheeling teachers had to choose from.

Lopez has seen Park's depiction, and while he isn't doubled over from laughter he's not offended, either.

I'm not personally offended or insulted by it," he said. "I just didn't understand what the message was."

Lopez, a former English teacher, is a popular principal who often passes out pictures of himself for art students to use. And if he knew what she was going to do with it, he still would've given her the picture, he said.

"I don't ask students what they're going to use it for," said Lopez, who, for the record, has never sported a mustache.

Park's piece has been a hot topic in the school's hallways ever since she got about 100 students to wear, "Hello my name is" stickers with mustaches drawn in the space where names go, said senior Dan Malsom, editor-in-chief of the Spokesman, Wheeling's student newspaper.

"A lot of kids were talking about it and it wasn't a story that died," said Malsom who wrote a front-page article on Park and her art.

The article probably gave Park more publicity than the art show would have, said District 214 school board president Bill Dussling. The show featured roughly 500 submissions, representing 10 schools from districts 211, 214 and 220. All submissions were chosen by the high schools' art teachers.

"More people probably saw the paper than the art show," Dussling said. "This was not a matter of censorship at all. Other students just submitted better art. That's all."

Park said as an art student, the school's name change set her off.

"That name makes me so angry," she said. "Not everyone loves math classes."

With an increased focus on math, science and engineering, Wheeling High School will officially become the Wheeling High School Math Science and Technology Academy in August.

The high school has been preparing for the change for years, adding technical classes to Wheeling's curriculum. The school also spent about $500,000 this summer to build a special lab for engineering and architectural students.

However that doesn't mean the school is neglecting art and English students, Lopez said.

"I understand there is fear that comes with change," he said. "But we are expanding our fine arts department at the same time. We recently spent $100,000 on a new photo lab for our art department."

Park, meanwhile, said she'll continue protesting the best way she knows how - through her art.

"I want to see what I can get away with," she said. "I'm working on drawing one of my history teachers next."