The morning of Oct. 11 proved a bit inconvenient for teachers on the northwest side of campus, as the teacher parking lot was closed, forcing teachers into temporary relocation. The closure was what administrators hoped was the final clean-up from an act of vandalism two weeks before, which not only cost thousands of dollars to cover but also left the school community rattled.
Early in the morning on Sept. 27, in the dim hours before the school bell summoned students to their classes, assistant principal and athletic director Mr. Jason Feuerbach walked around with his iPhone camera taking pictures of freshly spray-painted graffiti all over campus.
“A lot of times you hear, ‘Oh, there’s graffiti on campus’ and it’s like ‘Okay, whatever it’s probably one little area’,” Feuerbach said. “So I’m sitting (in my office) working and I’m here normally when it’s dark (around 5:30), so you can’t see anything. At around 5:40 or 5:50 I walked outside to tell the janitors something real quick, and we looked up, and it was like ‘Oh, goodness.’”
Feuerbach and the janitors were standing outside his office when they viewed the graffiti. The tags on the theater as well as the C building were a clear sight from their place. The inscription “RHS” and various curse words as well as a certain signature created by the offender were visible on the buildings.
“My initial reaction was like, ‘Obviously someone was in here for a long amount of time and they did several thousand dollars’ worth of damage’. My next step was, ‘How are we gonna get this off and paint over it as soon as possible?’ so that whoever did do it couldn’t feel really good about ‘Hey, look what I did’,” Feuerbach said.
Principal Debra Hawkins was unpleasantly surprised at the writings upon the campus walls.
“I think (my reaction) was like everybody else’s – it was just shock. It was just horrible shock that anyone would do that to the campus. I actually walked right past the theater; didn’t see it on top of the theater and I walked in the front door and Mrs. (Stacy) Velasquez said ‘Boss, step outside, take a look at the wall above’ and it was like ‘Oh my goodness’. And then of course I was told to take a walk around campus, so I grabbed my radio, took a walk with Mrs. (Jennifer) Hanks and it was everywhere,” Hawkins said.
Students have come forward with leads, and the administration has clues on who may have committed the crime, but they are still unsure.
“We have a few names. We know that, obviously because Rocklin High School was also hit, it was the same person — like the same drawings, the same stuff. So, we’re kind of working in coordination with (Rocklin) and Rocklin Police Department to figure it out,” Feuerbach said.
Due to the amount of damage, a figure exceeding several thousand dollars for both schools, the Rocklin Police Department is actively pursuing and interviewing people for information on the culprit(s). The money is coming out of the district’s pocket, but they will hold the culprit financially responsible when they catch and confirm who was responsible.
“We send (the police) the names and they interrogate and interview and figure it out,” Feuerbach said.
No one has been charged or arrested yet, but most of the names given are not of kids who attend either Rocklin or Whitney.
“It’s kind of like a wild goose chase; we’re trying to track down the various names and we have a whole bunch of them. But it appears as of now that it wasn’t kids that currently go to either school,” Feuerbach said.
The day of the tagging didn’t just upset the administration; students were affected by it as well.
“The kids were getting off the bus, and it was probably one of the quietest times I’ve ever heard on campus,” Hawkins said. “They looked around, and they didn’t know what to say. They were just quiet. One of the kids walked up to me and said ‘Who would do this?’ and I said ‘Yeah, that’s a good question. Who would just wanna do junk on campus?’ and one of the girls said ‘Not that I want tagging, but this is (really) bad tagging’.”
The tagging was on every building, according to Feuerbach’s inspection. There was spray paint etched in the metal part between the painted walls as well as the brick areas around the theater and staff parking lot. The campus was also becoming increasingly cleaner and this tagging was a huge offense.
“The kids have even done better this year with trash, the school’s been looking much better. I think everybody was just so appalled that this kind of ugliness would happen on campus. It didn’t seem to make any sense. It was so random,” Hawkins said.
Justin Conti, junior, was one of the many students disappointed by the graffiti.
“It really sucks. I’ve been on this campus for three years now, and seeing it defiled the way it was with bad words and racist remarks and pictures, I don’t even wanna think about it,” Conti said.
Principal Hawkins delivered an announcement to the entire campus during everyone’s second block on the day of the tagging. It carried an emotional tinge as she explained what happened and how terrible it was.
The next day, administration made an announcement for a monetary award to capture the attention of anyone with information on the recent wrongdoings. The cash reward has been climbing in value and is now estimated above $2,000.
Several volunteers helped paint over the graffiti on the day it appeared. Scott Peters, vice president of the PTC Booster Club, volunteered all morning to paint over the walls. The only thing that hindered his effort was that he ran out of paint.
The clean-up process continued on Oct. 9 when the brick area around the choir room and back of the C building were sandblasted to eliminate the remaining markings.
by KAVLEEN SINGH
