Crime & Safety

Vandals Cause Extensive Damage at Los Alamitos High School

School staffers arrived this morning to find much of the campus covered in graffiti.

Los Alamitos High School was extensively vandalized overnight. High School staffers arrived to work early this morning to find lockers, benches, walls and murals across the campus covered in graffiti.

There may be some indications in the graffiti, itself, as to who is responsible. The culprit or culprits spray-painted “2011” and “420,” a marijuana reference, throughout the campus, said Los Alamitos Police Department Capt. Bruce McAlpine.

“Someone did some systematic tagging to the campus pretty much all over the campus. There was some extensive damage. They got a lot of the lockers and a couple of the murals that were donated by graduating classes,” said McAlpine. “The good news is that it looks like a lot of the damage can be easily cleaned.”

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It is disappointing, said Dr. Gregory Franklin, the school district superintendent.

“One of the keys to a safe school is that everyone takes responsibility for keeping it safe. The most helpful thing kids and parents can do is report what they have seen or heard,” Franklin said. “We would like very much for the student or whoever did this to be held accountable for what they have done.”

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Despite the fact that the year was included in the graffiti, officials have no reason to believe the graffiti was part of the senior prank tradition.

“Senior pranks happen from time to time, but we try to advise and protect against them because, too often, they are more vandalism than prank,” added Franklin. “In this case, we don’t have any reason to believe this was a senior prank. It looks like an act of vandalism.”

The school’s custodial staff did a good job in covering up much of the damage so that students didn’t have to see the worst of it, said Philip Bowen, assistant principal at Los Alamitos High School.

“We have great kids here, and they were not happy with the fact that their school was vandalized. We are all upset and rightly so,” said Bowen. “We are working very closely with the police department to try to catch those responsible.”

Anyone with information about the crime is asked to call Los Alamitos Police Department Detective Sgt. Sean Connolly at 562-431-2255 x 405. Anyone with information can also call the school at 562-799-4780.

 


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