An Arizona elementary school has announced it will restore a mural to its original design after giving it a paint job to lighten the faces of the dark-skinned children it depicts. The Miller Valley Elementary School of Prescott, Arizona, drew controversy last week after it was revealed school administrators ordered the artists to lighten the children’s skin tone following complaints about their ethnicity. The school’s principal had maintained he had ordered the changes from an “artistic” point of view, not a “racial” one. But on Saturday, standing next to the artist in front of a crowd of dozens of protesters, the principal, Jeff Lane, reversed his decision and apologized.

Jeff Lane: “Miller Valley made a mistake. When we asked them to lighten the mural, we made a mistake. We are going back to our original theme.”