Vandals silenced by all-girls Catholic School

By David Freedlander | Special to amNewYork

2:30 PM EDT, March 11, 2008

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The teachers at a Lower East Side middle school are turning an act of vandalism into a teachable moment.

When someone last week spray-painted on one of the walls of the school, "Don't Walk Away in Silence," Connie Bush, the director of Cornelia Connelly Center, promptly had it painted over.

When the vandal struck again with the same message, Bush taped up a note in response.

"Dear Political Graffiti Artist," it read, "while it's hard to disagree with your message, we wonder if you realize that you've written it on our local school. We serve the families of this local community, and teach our girls to stand up for their rights, and the rights of others -- so you are preaching to the choir."

The letter explains that the money that could have been spent on a school trip, or to reward hard-working teachers, will instead have to go be used to cover over the graffiti.

It asked the vandal to heed his own message, and rather than walking away in silence, to come forward and help re-paint the wall.

The Cornelia Connelly Center, on East 4th Street, was founded in 1993 to serve low-income kids on the Lower East Side. Operating on a shoestring budget of grants and gifts, it houses a small all-girls Catholic middle school that students can attend for only $55 a month. When they graduate, Bush finds scholarships for them to attend local parochial schools. Ninety-four percent of her students graduate high school, a stunningly high number for the population she serves.

The teachers talked with the students -- about the need to speak up for what they believe in, but also to be respectful of other's people property and to take responsibility for their actions.

The graffiti -- and the note -- attracted the attention of the school's neighbors. Someone anonymously dropped off $100 to pay for the re-painting. Someone else taped a small black-and-white photo of Ian Curtis, the lead singer of the post-punk British band Joy Division to Bush's note.

Bush did a little research and realized that the message came from a Joy Division song, "Atmosphere."

"The message is one we want our girls to hear -- to take action, to speak up," said Bush.

"It really gave us a chance to engage in a dialogue with our students."

Check out our other coverage of graffiti-related stories in New York:

'Crack is Wack' mural now icon

Historic graffiti wall found with Fab 5 Freddy and Futura 2000's work