Racist slurs sprayed on walls at school
Names and derogatory, racist slurs were spray-painted over bricks, windows and freshly painted buildings at Nelson Intermediate School early on Sunday.
Now, the school is calling on anyone with information to contact the police to try and identify the culprits.
The vandalism was on windows, asphalt, the playground and the technology block, the school said in a Facebook post.
‘‘It saddens us to inform you that in the early hours of Sunday morning, our lovely, freshly painted school was vandalised with spray paint,’’ the post said.
On Monday, associate principal Nicky Chalmers said security camera footage showed the vandals spent a couple of hours at the school, spray-painting names and derogatory and racist slurs, including swear words. Footage captured them onsite at 2.45am and 4am.
The names were of older students at a different school in Stoke, so were not connected to Nelson Intermediate, she said.
‘‘We don’t think it’s targeting us necessarily . . . they found an area, a space, and decided to use that.’’
The vandalism was first reported by a student’s parent, after their son spotted it while skating at the school on Sunday.
‘‘We were quite upset,’’ Chalmers said.
The vandalism had a ‘‘huge effect’’ on the school community, she said.
‘‘It’s quite upsetting for our students, too. It can make then feel not 100% safe.’’
It was also upsetting for the students of another school whose names featured in vandalism, she said.
They were thankful the damage was discovered before their a¯konga (students) returned to school on Monday, as the leadership team rallied and much of it was able to be removed or covered on Sunday.
They were grateful to the team from Programmed Maintenance who had been at the school doing painting work and came in on Sunday to assist.
Freshly repainted walls would now have to be redone at an extra cost to the school, she said.
A police spokesperson said the CCTV footage was not clear enough to identify offenders and anyone with information should contact police.