By Cara Martinez
Staff Writer
Graffiti and images of profanity was spray painted on the Mira Costa High School campus May 26, 2015 right after memorial day weekend.
The graffiti was spotted by students and staff on the outside wall of the West Locker hall. “RUHS” was written in bright red ink above the entrance to the locker hall and vulgar language and inappropriate images were displayed behind the back of the small GYM. Security was immediately notified when the graffiti was witnessed.
“Memorial weekend was it, it was the weekend that broke my back,” Principal Ben Dale said.
According to Dale, the graffiti made him realize how disappointing it can be to see a school being damaged. The incident on the staircase was due to a car that drove up the staircase near the front office which supposedly took place during memorial weekend. The graffiti and the destruction of the stairs were still unrelated events.
“ I was grateful the graffiti was behind the GYM, not the new buildings, because it is so destructive, but I was disappointed and frustrated to see vandalism towards Costa,” Dale said.
Mira Costa has had issues with people vandalizing the school on weekends, but now there is around the clock security present on campus. According to Dale, graffiti is not a huge problem at Mira Costa and that Costa has fewer vandalism incidents compared to most High Schools. Dale is fortunate to work at a school that doesn’t have to deal with vandalism on a daily basis.
“We are very fortunate here, because we don’t really have a graffiti problem,” Dale said.
According to Dale, Mira Costa’s staff takes vandalism situations deliberately. It is a small problem since Costa students don’t vandalize the school very often.
“ We are taking the situation very seriously, and keeping all possibilities open, but we are safe,” Vice Principal Shaw said.
According to Shaw everyone is safe and protected, and nobody got hurt in any way. The grafitti did not put anyone in danger according to Shaw, but there is still a possibility it could have been a threat towards our school because it showed that people have hate against Costa to do such destruction on school property.
“ I was very upset about the graffiti because I care about Costa, and I take pride in our school, and I want it to look nice,” Shaw said.
The school maintenance took care of the situation, and they managed to clean up the graffiti as soon as school began after the memorial weekend. Shaw commends the maintenance for all of their hard work throughout the situation.
“It was immature that people would do such damage to our school,” Freshman Maci Vosberg said.
The fact that “RUHS” was written on the walls, creates a speculation that it could’ve been students from Redondo Union High School, but nobody was caught. The suspect still remains unknown, but students and staff question Redondo’s involvement in this destruction.
“It was good our school took great precautions in covering up the graffiti, or else it would have been a huge controversy,” Vosberg said.
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