Vandals deface Armenian school
Vandals targeted the Krouzian-Zekarian-Vasbouragan Armenian School in San Francisco with threatening and racist graffiti, in an attack that claims to support a violent, antiArmenian movement led by Azerbaijan, officials said Friday.
The messages reading “F— ARMENIA,” “U WILL PAY” and several others were spraypainted on the school’s walls and gates, as well as sexist slurs against the Kardashians, a celebrity family who are of Armenian heritage.
“It’s very, very disturbing to have these criminals target young kids and try to instill fear in them,” said school Principal Grace Andonian.
“It’s kind of the same thing as having a swastika on a Jewish school.”
The San Francisco Police Department’s Special Investigations Unit is leading the probe and is “looking into the hatecrime aspect,” said Officer Robert Rueca, a department spokesman.
The school, located on the 800 block of Brotherhood Way, is a private bilingual institution that teaches preschool through eighth grade and is the only Armenian school in the Bay Area.
The attacks come more than 100 years after the start of the Armenian genocide, where more than 30,000 Armenians were killed in the Azerbaijani capital of Baku. Decades of hostility intensified on the morning of July 12, when Azerbaijani attacks broke out along the ArmenianAzerbaijan border. The conflict ultimately killed 16 people on both sides, community officials said.
On Tuesday, more than 500 Armenians protested outside of the Azerbaijan Consulate General in Los Angeles, leading to three assaults currently under investigation as hate crimes. Police said the three who were assaulted were Azerbaijani counterprotesters, the local CBS affiliate reported.
Alex Galitsky, communications director of the Armenian National Committee of America, said the vandalism came after a global series of hate crimes against Armenians, including an attack on an Armenian embassy vehicle in Germany and the torching of an Armenian business in Ukraine.
“It’s a direct threat against our community,” Galitsky said of the school’s vandalism.
Andonian said parents and alumni of the school have been extremely supportive, rushing to the school Friday morning ready to paint over the offensive graffiti.
The school’s video surveillance system captured about five perpetrators in the act, she said, but the vandals were wearing hoodies and masks. One suspect stood slightly farther away, she said, overseeing the operation.
School officials have turned over the footage to police.
“I hope that the city officials are going to be following up, (so) these hate crimes won’t go by unchecked and unpunished,” Andonian said.
San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin weighed in on social media, saying he was “outraged” by the attack.
“This is totally inconsistent with San Francisco values,” Boudin wrote Friday on Twitter. “It is also a CRIME. We are working with (San Francisco police) to investigate. We stand with our Armenian brothers and sisters.”
Alex Bastian, an Armenian American and prosecutor for the district attorney’s office, urged San Franciscans to show their support.
“I do have a message to those that did this cowardly act: We will not be bullied or intimidated,” Bastian said, speaking as a member of the Armenian community. “Quite the contrary, these types of acts only reinforce our position and our desire to remain strong and vigilant.”