WEST SEATTLE CRIME WATCH: Racist vandalism at local school

| Crime | Gatewood | West Seattle news | West Seattle schools

Gatewood Elementary was vandalized overnight with what the principal described in email to families as “horrific racially-charged graffiti.” Principal Kyna Hogg wrote that, before students arrived for the day, “Our team took immediate action and covered the graffiti (until it can be permanently removed), we called 911, and informed the SPS Safety and Security team.”

(Added: WSB photo, part of the area where vandalism was covered up)

District spokesperson Tim Robinson tells WSB the work order for permanent removal is already in and work should happen soon. Gatewood has been hit with racist crime before; we reported earlier this year on the fourth theft of a Black Lives Matter banner from the school fence, The racists won’t win, Hogg assured families: “I believe it is important to continue to emphasize that Black Lives Matter at Gatewood Elementary School and throughout Seattle Public Schools.”

Derek September 2, 2021 (5:22 pm)

If you’re racist. Get out of Seattle. Get out of Washington. Thank you. This is completely uncalled for and despicable.

TransContinental September 14, 2021 (9:00 pm)

NAILED it, Derek!#BuhBYE

Trisha September 2, 2021 (6:16 pm)

With that kind of frequency, I wonder if it is someone who lives close by doing the vandalizing.

MrsMyrtle September 2, 2021 (7:32 pm)

Ryan Cox?
- WSB September 2, 2021 (10:01 pm)
  
  If he returned to this area again, he has not had any brushes with law enforcement since that one quick arrest shortly after his release from prison – I just checked jail and court records.

Thad September 2, 2021 (6:41 pm)

These people are not going to be stopped until they are isolated from society.

Scubafrog September 2, 2021 (8:08 pm)

There seems to be a resurgence of racist graffiti in WS. Naturally, these cowards remain hidden. It would be great to find a perpetrator, and prosecute it with a hate crime to set a an example. Racism, bigotry, hate nor misogyny have any place in this world. Let alone WS.

LisaS September 2, 2021 (8:44 pm)

This needs to end ASAP. Maybe install video cameras?

Trisha September 3, 2021 (10:36 am)

Cameras aren’t allowed on school property for privacy reasons. It would have to be nearby neighbors setting up cameras on their own property.
- Brooke September 8, 2021 (4:57 pm)
  
  That’s interesting to hear. I moved to West Seattle from another part of the city and the elementary school my kid went to had cameras on school property installed after incidents of racist vandalism. I wonder whether it’s really the case that cameras are not allowed.

AJP September 3, 2021 (9:46 am)

Black lives matter.

206Since'96 September 3, 2021 (9:47 am)

In the last few years I’ve seen posters pamphlets and stickers of organized dumbass*s around here like “Patriot Front” and “Identity Europa”. I witnessed these in the CD and in the Waterfront not specifically in the west but never that far really either.