By Shrida Pandey and Jacqueline Kuhner, Head Online Section Editor and Staff Writer
Under the cover of darkness, an unknown individual scales the Acalanes High School roof, armed with an idea and a bag full of spray-paint. Shaking their blue bottle, they begin drawing graffiti on a once clear white wall, leaving a tag in their wake.
An anonymous perpetrator vandalized the Acalanes upper 400-wing wall facing west with a spray-painted picture over the weekend.
Staff and students alike could not discern exactly what the image was.
“It was some sort of insignia, some sort of drawing, but we couldn’t figure out what it was,” Campus Supervisor Andy McDonald said.
In order to cover up the image, the Acalanes administration spent money on supplies and assigned maintenance staff to restore the wall.
“Anytime we see graffiti on campus, it is so disappointing. That graffiti takes work to cover back up. I had to take two maintenance people off a job [on Tuesday] to climb up to a roof, [which] is not safe, to paint over [the graffiti],” Powers said.
In addition to restoring the wall, school administrators focused on finding the individual responsible for the graffiti by utilizing cameras and talking to students.
“Any time something like this happens, we go to all of our little tricks of the trade… We start asking questions, pull our staff in to help, and there are steps to [figure out who did it]. We always start those steps right away and go from there,” Powers said.
Campus supervisors typically see these types of occurrences three to four times a year. Each time, the process of finding the culprit responsible varies.
“We [usually] think [the vandals are] kids who are bored with nothing else to do. [In order to find them,] we check cameras. Every blue moon, we’ll have someone come forward and drop a name for us, but we can’t count on that regularly,” McDonald said.
If caught, the school will hold the individual responsible for their actions.
“If you’re caught doing this, your family is going to have to pay for it because it needs to be taken care of,” McDonald said. “We’re lucky to go to a school like this. We’re fortunate, and we should have pride in that.”
Top photo by Kayli Harley
Bottom photo by Val Penati
Easy solution – if there is a certain pattern of places this has happened put up a Ring flood light with camera. No one wants to be on candid camera with a spot light on them:)