This is the mural whose painted words REALLY describe the Tynan School! “Safe, Kind, Responsible, Respectful”.
The photograph says it all: it’s the mural overlooking South Boston’s Tynan School play area on Fourth Street. It reads, – TYNAN “Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible, Be Respectful”. Unfortunately, last Wednesday morning, some vandal (or vandals) decided otherwise. These animals adorned several doors and walls on the Tynan School with obscene words. There is no need to repeat that language, but some of the words began with the letters “F” and “N”. Maybe these are the only words those vandals know. Enough said.
The Tynan’s custodians responded immediately, painting over this graffiti as soon as the police had finished their investigation. But this incident is a disgrace and an embarrassment to the good people of South Boston. It is of even greater concern to the teachers and staff who work at the Tynan School, and what’s most important, it was upsetting, even frightening, to the young students at the Tynan School.
South Boston’s reaction was immediate. A notice was issued that there would be a standout at the Tynan School on Friday morning, November 2, beginning at 7:30. The standout was to show support for the Tynan School, especially its students. Approximately 250 people showed up. Most of them were from South Boston, but many others came as well, including Mayor Walsh, Interim BPS Superintendent Laura Perrile, and clergy from around our City. It was a heartening demonstration that concluded with the standout’s participants forming an aisle by the Tynan School’s main door, which the students used to enter school after getting off their school buses.
Except for a few words of gratitude for the standout from Tynan Principal Leslie Gant, there was no program. The only purpose of the standout was to show visible support to the Tynan teachers and staff, and to demonstrate to the students that they were welcome here when they arrived on Friday morning. And in South Boston Online’s opinion, the standout worked.
Some advice to the vandals who painted the obscene graffiti on the Tynan: Whoever you are, you have shamed South Boston by what you did. You are also cowards because you picked on young children, some of whom aren’t much older than toddlers. So, if you live in South Boston, please move out. We don’t want you here any longer. The police are after you! In the meantime, let’s all take a minute to reflect upon Doctor Tynan, for whom the Tynan School is named. He was reputed to have never sent a bill to his patients – he simply relied on them “to pay him whenever they could”. Dr. Tynan is a fine example of what the Tynan School is all about, so we’ll close by simply repeating the words on the Tynan’s play area mural: “Be Safe, Be Kind, Be Responsible, Be Respected”.
Those words say it all.
