'You are loved': Delaware school covers bathroom stalls in uplifting messages for students

Most students wouldn't expect to see a mural when they walk into the bathroom. 

But this year, students at Odyssey Charter School will come back from summer to find bathroom stalls painted with inspirational messages, rocket ships, flowers, rainbows and more.

School counselor Abby Robinson had seen similar bathroom art projects on Facebook last summer. With Odyssey's campus being housed in an old office building, she thought murals on the stalls would be more kid-appropriate than plain walls. 

So while students were out of the building this summer, Robinson, with the help of parent and teacher volunteers, added the washroom murals to the stalls in the campus's lower school.

Students in kindergarten through second grade use the bathrooms that were painted. 

"Aesthetically, I thought it would be really great for the kids," Robinson said. "Bathrooms often aren't the nicest places to look at. It shows kids that we want to take care of our school and we want things to be fun and inviting. It sets a tone for the type of place we want our school to be."

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The project has started off with one boys and one girls bathroom, but Robinson hopes to see it expand to the rest of the campus.

She would love to see older students take ownership of the project and plan art for the other stalls. 

The stalls offer reminders to students that they can do anything, and to radiate positivity. At Odyssey, students take classes in Greek.

While the students in the lower school aren't able to read the language yet, simple Greek phrases like "good morning" and "be kind" are painted onto the murals. 

Robinson didn't tell anyone what to paint. She wanted volunteers to have as much creative license as possible, just so long as the phrases were easy enough for young readers to understand. 

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"The more kids see positive messages, the more it's going to get ingrained in their brain and they're going to want to emulate those things," she said. "It's like when people put Post-Its on their mirror when they're getting ready — it starts your day off in a positive way."  

Natalia covers education for the News Journal. Did your school revamp its campus over the summer? Let her know at (302) 324-2312 or nalamdari@delawareonline.com.