LAWRENCEVILLE, Ga. — Grayson High School students are paying homage to their local police through art.
A group of students in Grayson High's National Art Honor Society recently finished a mural and presented it to the Gwinnett County Police Department, according to the Gwinnett County Public Schools.
"We wanted to give back to the community," Grayson High School art teacher Linn Zamora said. "So, the students decided to give something back to the police officers of the Gwinnett County Police Department."
Zamora told 11Alive that a former student whose father was an officer in the Gwinnett County Police Department inspired this project.
"We had a discussion together as a group about how [police] receive a lot of negative attention and [students] wanted to show their appreciation for them."
This project prompted discussions among students and taught them how to have productive conversations amid dissenting arguments.
Some of the students involved in this project said they wanted to be more inclusive and show various members of Gwinnett's law enforcement community, including Officer Antwan Toney, who was killed in the line of duty in 2018.
"We wanted to include them and show them our respect for what they do for us," art student Shelby Infante said.
Infante also said she hopes this mural project will help the public to have a more positive outlook on police.
"There's a lot of controversy going around with the police, and they are meant to protect us," she said.
Samuel Keller worked on this mural alongside Infante and said he also believes this project will have a great community impact.
"The mural shows the different things the police do for us," he said.
The mural is currently located at the Gwinnett County South Precinct.
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