St Mary’s mural in support of fallen police officers

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30 April 2020

Mural for police officersAfter seeing the news of the tragic deaths of four Victoria Police officers last Wednesday, principal Gerard Lewis of St Mary’s School, St Kilda East, said: ‘I was blown away by it. It really hit home for me about the fragility of life. I thought we could do something here at St Mary’s, something a bit different, a way of giving recognition and paying tribute to those four police officers who died in the accident, and also to recognise the great work that Victoria Police do. So on Friday I contacted our art teacher Caroline to see if she could create a mural to put out the front of the school and she really ran with the idea and spent Saturday creating it and put it up on Sunday.’

The mural is displayed on the front fence of the school along Dandenong Road and depicts the four officers who died in the tragic accident: Leading Senior Constable Lynette Taylor, Senior Constable Kevin King, and constables Josh Prestney and Glen Humphris.

Caroline Egan shared with The Age: ‘We wanted to make a respectful and powerful statement because the loss has had a massive ripple effect right through the community. It’s for the whole blue family. Everyone has seen what happened and it’s so tragic. I think art, it connects people.’

On the response from the community, Mr Lewis said: ‘We have members of our community who are police officers, they are parents and grandparents; it is really a way of paying tribute to the fantastic work that they do too. They do an amazing job, and this tragedy that happened last Wednesday sends shock through everyone, and so it’s just a way that we can show our support to them.’