Personal projects have been at West since the school embraced the Middle-Years Program a few years back.  The International Baccalaureate program, which focuses on grades 6-10, uses the Personal Project as an opportunity for students to follow a passion on their path to becoming well-rounded individuals.

Most of the time, these project’s don’t directly benefit the community, but sophomore Madison Ewing wanted her project to make West a more positive place to be.  Ewing painted inspirational quotes on the inside of the girls’ bathroom stalls, including inspirational reminders to be happy, to be yourself, and to lift one another up.  Ewing put them in a bathroom because it’s one place in the school where people sit and stay focused, whereas other wall space may be passed by.

Once in a stall, the message is only to the intended reader and was meant to make students feel special and unique. This was a change from the usual graffiti that appears on bathroom doors. Girls were specifically targeted with the positive messages, given the women’s empowerment movement going on all over the country.  It was an idea Ewing found on social media.

However, only after two short weeks, one door has already been vandalized. Ripped from top to bottom, Ewing’s hard work disappeared with the paint. Only a small amount of black remains, staying as a reminder of what happened to Ewing’s work.

The stall previously read “Your mistakes don’t define you!” to help remind students to not dwell in the past but to move forward. The motive of the vandalism is unknown but many are disappointed with the random act of hate.

“It’s upsetting because I wish people would realize the time that was spent working on them.  I still don’t regret trying to spread positivity,” said Ewing.

Ewing plans on redoing the door and will reinforce her art with plexiglass covers that will hopefully preserve them for longer.