Tony sent photos of the latest tagging on the back of Schmitz Park Elementary School – which we’ve blurred, as we usually don’t show specific tags unless, for example, police are asking for help tracing/tracking someone (akin to the policy suggested here). Tony wrote that he saw it as he dropped his kids off at school Monday, and, “My girls told me that it wasn’t there on Friday. You can even see that the school had already painted over graffiti on this wall last week or the week before.” And another student’s father has posted about this in the WSB Forums, calling himself Schmitz Park Dad, and suggesting that community vigilance might stop the problem: “We know that all three taggings were done over weekends, most likely late in the evening. I am requesting that any Schmitz Park Elementary parents, or other community members in the neighborhood, make an extra effort to drive by the school in the evenings, particularly over the weekends. Perhaps one of us will spot the vandals and the authorities can be notified. The graffiti on all occasions has been on the north (rear) wall of the property by the very back playground.” (Read his entire post here.) As we mentioned to Tony in e-mail, police have said at recent public meetings that they want to hear about graffiti vandalism because they’re keeping a database to track it so that if and when someone is arrested, they may be linked to more than one case — so it’s important to make sure this is reported to police (if it’s a school or park, the institution is supposed to make the report directly), and also to photograph it before it’s painted over so those photos can be provided to police. And if you see taggers “in action,” call 911.
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