Reinstate Aurora Berger to her position as Art Teacher at Newton School

Aurora is extraordinarily kind, hardworking, and an absolutely brilliant artist - The fact that this happened at all is a travesty!

A similar thing happened to me and it was heartbreaking for me and the kids. I want to say I sympathize and I hope you can be back with your students to make their education whole.

She’s a brilliant teacher and an amazing artist and you are lucky to have her

A tremendously unjust and actively harmful firing, carried out with zero genuine interest in students’ artistic growth and development. Ignore the bored, incompetent, puritanical busybodies. Reinstate Aurora now.

I fully support Aurora. She was a wonderful role model for my daughter

I think the students need an art program and Aurora Berger is an amazing teacher and worth the position

Please let her teach at newton. The kids need art v

Re instate Aurora

Reading about Aurora’s story as an artist myself, I have seen this situation happen before. She has every right to make her art in any way she wants to express herself, and by not promoting it or showing it to her students during her time shows that she respected her responsibilities as an educator. For those who went so far as to make it so she could be removed from a role where she was an influential educator, shame on you. You went and pushed something that you had a problem with and are trying to make it everyone’s problem, and at the cost of Aurora’s career and at the cost of her student’s education.

As a parent whose child I'm intending on attending the Newton School, I'm saddened upon learning of this. Normalizing freedom of expression that is groundbreaking, thought-provoking, and insightful is foundational for our own children to be able to do the same. It was profoundly brave and vulnerable for Aurora to render herself in her work. Would that we could all be so courageous! She is deserving of being reinstated. The community response has greatly bolstered my intention to live in Strafford.

A great teacher shouldn't be fired because of closed mind, ignorant people. All you're doing is punishing the kids.

Art gives children another way to express themselves which is so important these days and art keeps kids in school later on.

As a former classroom and art teacher at the Newton School, I cannot stress highly enough the importance of the arts!

Aurora is an amazing artist, teacher and human!! The students deserve to have her back!

Aurora has made my child's school experience!

Reinstate her!

Total support for Aurora as a teacher and artist

Please reinstate this outstanding teacher.

It would be difficult to graduate from art school without having drawn nudes to learn how to draw musculature, or to skip the nude assignment while learning photography. IT’s not every day that an artist will include the self portraiture in a portfolio. However, these nude photos were exquisitely rendered studies of light, and often the portraits reminded me of the sad Lely’s Venus, the roman copy of the Greek Aphrodite crouching at her bath. It was 500BC when the Greeks achieved their artistic height, creating a more realistic representation of the human condition. Viewing this artist’s nudes, I was transported by lovingness toward our natural state. We are only human, not an abstraction, and these beautiful portrayals of mortality speak to many of us. Is it not this ability to facilitate our children’s ability to accept themselves that we admire in our best teachers?

Aurora is an extraordinary individual and art teacher, beloved by my granddaughters. Her dismissal has left them, and me, stunned and bewildered...