James Franco’s high school has removed his art from their grounds amid the sexual misconduct scandal surrounding the actor.
Franco has denied the allegations of harassment and assault made against him by five women, but has seen his career greatly affected by the accusations – losing out on the Oscar nomination he had widely been tipped to receive for The Disaster Artist.
Now Palo Alto High School in California, from which Franco graduated in 1996, has taken steps to cut ties with the 39-year-old star, by taking down a mural he painted.
There are also plans to remove other art Franco donated to the school over the years, with
Superintendent Karen Hendricks saying in a statement on Thursday (01Feb18) that doing so is “in the best interests of our students in light of our educational mission”.
While the statement didn’t directly mention the sexual misconduct scandal, the school’s newspaper The Paly Voice quoted Principal Kim Diorio in an article earlier this week as saying she was unsure how to proceed with Franco’s artistic donations in the wake of the claims against him.
“These are still allegations. He’s denied those allegations and hasn’t been charged with a crime,” the principal was quoted as saying.
She apparently added: “I made the decision we’ll take down the mural.”
Superintendent Hendricks said in her statement that since graduating, Franco has made several contributions to the school’s arts programs, as well as loaning paintings to the school in 2014 and returning to campus to give interviews to student publications and teach a film workshop.
“James Franco donated multiple pieces of artwork and two murals to the Palo Alto High School campus,” the statement read. One mural was removed in 2016 while “the second mural was taken down last week”.
The remainder of Franco’s artwork is “now being transitioned” off campus.
