‘Stronger, brighter & more colourful’: New rainbow crosswalk unveiled at École Peace Arch Elementary
École Peace Arch Elementary teacher and SOGI representative Julina Murphy shows off the school's new rainbow crosswalk! The painted crosswalk is two years in the making and serves to promote diversity, inclusivity and respect.
The paint has dried on a new, colourful and vivid rainbow crosswalk at École Peace Arch Elementary, encouraging a sense of inclusivity, belonging and respect among the student and parent community.
Unveiled today (Friday, Oct. 6), the rainbow crosswalk is two years in the making for the White Rock school, stemming from an unfortunate incident of vandalism after students from various classes and the school’s diversity club designed a rainbow flag for Pride Week in 2021.
“At that time, our diversity club and administration wanted to make our Rainbow Day a bit bigger, so as a committee, teachers who were interested planned a week of events,” said Julina Murphy, an early French Immersion teacher and the school’s SOGI representative. “One of the activities was for classes to design a pride flag or banner, and we put ours in the window.”
Murphy and a group of students made a flag that read “l’amour pas la gay-re (guerre),” a French play on words that translates to “love not war.” But shortly after it was displayed in her classroom window, someone broke the window in the middle of the night and tore the flag.
“My class and some students from the diversity club ended up drawing rainbow Band-Aids and stitched it all back up, putting it on the next available window, and we also decorated the plywood with rainbows to cover up the broken window,” she said. “That incident turned into the catalyst for the crosswalk.
“I could have just done nothing, but we were going to come back stronger and brighter and more colourful.”
Last September, Murphy got the ball rolling on the rainbow crosswalk and contacted the City of White Rock about getting one painted outside the school. The cost was quoted as $20,000, with the city offering to cover half, leaving the school and PAC to fundraise the remaining $10,000.
“I reached out to the White Rock Pride Society and I ended up speaking at one of their monthly meetings, and they decided to take us on as one of their fundraising projects for the year,” said Murphy. “They ended up covering most of our part, which was very generous.”
With only $2,500 to go, the school and PAC were able to cover the rest, making the rainbow crosswalk a reality for the school. And with it finally unveiled, Murphy said it has been welcomed and well-received by her school community.
“It’s overwhelming in the best way possible,” said Murphy. “It was a lot of work but it is absolutely beautiful. It’s heartwarming to see kids and parents stop and look at it and take pictures, and to hear the conversations about it on the street. I feel like it was definitely needed.”
