After a summer of controversy over a work of art that caused an international debate about censorship, history and racial inequality, students returned to San Francisco’s Washington High School Monday with their own opinions of the mural in their midst.

The 1,600-square-foot painting that graces the Washington lobby hit the headlines while students were on summer recess. The city school board voted to destroy the 1936 fresco because its images of slavery and a dead Native American offended some students. But widespread criticism led the board to backtrack, and this month they voted to shield the mural’s 13 panels from view.

Several students said Monday they would prefer not to be so sheltered.

The mural “reminds us of what happened in history, and I don’t think we should forget that,” said freshman Sy Mundine, 14, a black student who said his parents disagree with him.

He said that in April, when his parents visited Washington in the foggy northwest corner of the city to see whether they wanted their son to attend, they were concerned about what they saw in the school lobby: images of enslaved Africans.

The images are part of the 13-panel “Life of Washington” fresco by Victor Arnautoff, a celebrated muralist who worked with Diego Rivera and oversaw the city’s Coit Tower frescoes. Arnautoff, a Russian emigree who fled the Bolsheviks before turning to communism himself, opposed racism and did not want to whitewash the truth of American history, according to his biographer, Robert Cherny, a professor emeritus at San Francisco State University.

Funded by the Works Progress Administration’s Federal Art Project, “the murals present a counter narrative to the high school history texts of the time,” which offered a simplified, Eurocentric version of history, Cherny wrote.

On June 25, the city school board voted to paint over the frescoes. Artists, celebrities, the San Francisco chapter of the NAACP and others criticized the move. Supporters threatened a ballot measure to overturn the decision. The board now says it will cover the mural at an estimated cost of $875,000.

Sy, one of 17 students who spoke with a reporter at lunchtime Monday, became curious about the mural and researched it online.

“I found my own opinion,” he said. “I think it’s good to remember history.”

Of the 17 students who talked with a reporter, 10 said the mural should remain visible. Five of them were black and agreed with Sy that students should be able to continue seeing the mural.

Two, both African American, said it should be covered up. And five — including three Asian Americans, one white student and one black student — said they didn’t care either way.

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Junior Ahmani Johnson, 16, is offended by the mural.

More Information The Chronicle also created two videos, of the lower and upper murals, that let you pause and zoom into portions you wish to study. Those are available at https://bit.ly/2TJEgKn.

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“I noticed it my freshman year,” she said. “It’s got slaves in the field. I was like, what the heck! My grandmother and my auntie were students here, and they never said anything about it. I remember feeling a little disrespected. I feel they do need to paint over it or something because times have changed. I know it’s history, but to have it right there? African American students are a minority, and they probably feel unimportant. I do, at times.”

Told that novelist Alice Walker, the first black woman to win the Pulitzer Prize, for “The Color Purple” — one of the books parents most often try to ban — is arguing to keep the mural visible and use it as teaching tool, Ahmani shrugged.

“I kind of get what she’s trying to say, but when the teachers talk about black history, all they play are slave movies,” Ahmani said. “We have this whole other part — what we’ve accomplished and achieved. Why just talk about the bad parts?”

Several black students, including those who want to keep the mural, agreed that their teachers teach about slavery too often. But they said the mural is almost never one of their teaching tools.

A group of friends, four African American juniors, began discussing the issue over lunch on the steps just outside of where the mural greets them — for better or worse — each morning.

“I feel like you shouldn’t cover up the truth,” said Jaylen Gordon, 15.

Luca Jackson, 16, agreed. “You shouldn’t just cover up the truth bcause it hurts people’s feelings.”

Malik Green, 16, said he doesn’t want to continue seeing the mural. “It’s the past, and we’re in the future. ... They teach more about slavery than we get to know about presidents.”

Sophomore Jeffrey Peraza, 15, a Latino student, said he understood “how the mural could be offensive to some people. America did some horrible things.” Even so, he said, “they should keep it as a way to know that we’re not neglecting the fact that we did this.”

Senior Jesse Driskill, 17, agreed.

“It’s a piece of history, and it shouldn’t be removed or covered,” said Jesse, who is white and Thai American. “Generally, though, I’ve seen that most people at school don’t really care.”

Senior Kevin Wong, 18, who is Chinese American, argued that most students don’t even notice the fresco.

“Last year, our history teacher said, ‘There’s murals downstairs.’ I said, ‘Where?’”

Nanette Asimov is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: nasimov@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @NanetteAsimov