Tolland High School Vandalized

Tolland -- The first time the school cleaned off the graffiti themselves, this time they hired a company to do it. Now the school wants to find who has been spray painting racial slurs on the school, and make them pay for it.

Looking at Tolland High School, you would never know that racial slurs had been spray painted on the walls and windows of the building. That's because the school paid a company $2,500 to clean them.

Principal Joe Bacewicz tells Eyewitness News that late Friday night or early Saturday morning someone sprayed anti-gay references and anti-Semitic messages across the front of the school and the walls of the auditorium. Some also were negative comments about the principal and the assistant principal, leading the school to believe those responsible are students or maybe former students.

This is not the first time the school has been vandalized. At the end of January, vandals spray painted swastikas and obscenities outside the auditorium. The principal says those responsible know they did something wrong but they may not know the consequences.

Because these are racial slurs, they could be charged with a hate crime. They could even be suspended or expelled from school.

"I really don't believe they understand how serious this is," says Bacewicz, "it is serious and it should be a hate crime. But I think they thought it was a cool thing to do."

The high school is an old building and does not have a security system in place which could have caught the vandals. Next September the new high school opens which does have cameras.

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