James Franco’s former high school has announced that it will remove pieces of art made by the actor after he was accused of sexual misconduct by five women last month.
Administrators at Palo Alto High School said they have already taken down a mural he painted and that they plan to remove other art donated by the celebrity alumnus.
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Removing the artwork from Palo Alto High School, from where Franco graduated in 1996, is “in the best interests of our students in light of our educational mission,” Superintendent Karen Hendricks said Thursday in a statement.
The statement did not mention the allegations brought against Franco, but the school’s newspaper reported that it had to do with why the artwork was removed.
Campus newspaper The Paly Voice quoted Principal Kim Diorio in a story earlier this week saying she struggled with how to handle Franco’s artistic contributions since allegations surfaced against him last month.
“These are still allegations,” Diorio told the paper. “He’s denied those allegations and hasn’t been charged with a crime.”
Nonetheless, Diorio said: “I made the decision we’ll take down the mural.”
The school newspaper said Franco has actively contributed to campus arts programs since graduating. He has returned to give interviews to student publications, taught a film workshop and in 2014 loaned several paintings to the school, the newspaper said.
Diorio said Franco’s paintings and mural were temporary contributions to the campus in 2014.
“Nothing was intended to be permanent. Even his artwork is still considered to be ‘on loan’ to us,” she told the paper, a sentiment superintendent Hendricks agreed with.
“James Franco donated multiple pieces of artwork and two murals to the Palo Alto High School campus,” her statement said. One mural was removed in 2016.
“The second mural was taken down last week,” the statement said, and remaining Franco artwork is “now being transitioned” off campus.
Franco’s alma mater isn’t the only institution distancing itself from him; it was revealed last week that Vanity Fair digitally erased Franco from the cover of their new Hollywood issue amid sexual misconduct allegations against him.
The Disaster Artist Golden Globe winner was originally in the photo among other stars such as Reese Witherspoon, Tom Hanks and Oprah, but was digitally removed before the cover went out.
Franco was accused of sexual misconduct by five women last month, some of whom were former students of his. The allegations came in the form of a Los Angeles Times article after several women called him out on social media for wearing a Time’s Up pin to the Golden Globes after they say he acted inappropriately toward them.
The 39-year-old actor has denied all claims against him, telling Stephen Colbert on The Late Show that the accusations were “not accurate, but I completely support people coming out and being able to have a voice because they didn’t have a voice for so long.” He also said, “In my life I pride myself on taking responsibility for things that I’ve done,” adding that, “whenever I know that there is something wrong or needs to be changed, I make it a point to do it.”
