Graffiti vandals tagged several buildings at R.O. Hardin
Elementary School sometime during the three-day holiday weekend,
school officials said.
Graffiti vandals tagged several buildings at R.O. Hardin Elementary School sometime during the three-day holiday weekend, school officials said.
Principal Don Knapp said Hollister police have digitally photographed the 12 to 14 markings, which he said police plan to analyze and compare to other, similar tags throughout Hollister.
Based on the markings, Knapp called it “the work of a few” and said the problem at his school is now “causing a major concern.”
Hollister Police Capt. Bob Brooks said the graffiti was sprayed in red letters two feet tall and one foot wide across the entire length of the school’s south wall.
“It sounds like the work of a tagging crew and not a street gang,” Brooks said.
With no school Monday in commemoration of Martin Luther King Jr. Day, Knapp said he wasn’t exactly sure when the crime occurred. He said vandals tagged the school’s outside walls with similar markings just last month – and also three months before that.
Police, who reportedly took the pictures Sunday, spoke to Knapp about the incident Tuesday.
“Police have been very responsive,” said Knapp, who added that the Hollister School District has cooperated in removing the paint in a timely manner.
Maintenance worker Fred Cordova finished painting over the marks at about 11 a.m. Tuesday.
Knapp said this particular crime did not resemble the work of gangs. Graffiti by gang members, he said, has actually decreased at R.O. Hardin in recent years.
Brooks said police have seen tagging activity in the city rise and fall over the years, and that the vandalism is on an upswing.
“Right now, we seem to be at a peak with some very active tagging crews,” he said. “This is nothing new. It’s always been here.”
Knapp, who has worked at R.O. Hardin for seven years, said previous graffiti vandalism at the school has been much worse than the recent incident. He said vandals have defaced entire walls of building fronts in the past.
Free Lance Assistant Editor Jed Logan contributed to this report.
