COLUMBUS – New Albany police are investigating an incident of vandalism at New Albany High School in which racist and anti-Semitic graffiti was spray-painted on the school’s tennis courts and an equipment shed.
The vandalism was discovered Monday morning, according to a report in The Columbus Dispatch, prompting a statement to students, parents and employees from district superintendent Michael Sawyers, headlined “Today’s Act of Vandalism Does Not Define Us.”
Sawyers said that three tennis courts and the shed were vandalized with graffiti he called “derogatory, insensitive, racially motivated, and hateful.”
This type of behavior will not be tolerated on our school campus and goes against everything we believe as a learning community. All students matter. I challenge each of us to remember that cowardly acts such as these do not define who we are as a school community. Our actions and each of our responses do. Our learning community values diversity and it is our collective responsibility to create a culture of belonging for all students to achieve academically and developmentally. Choose to have a voice and if you see something, say something today, tomorrow, or at anytime in the future. I encourage anyone with information related to this act of vandalism to contact any district administrator or the New Albany Police Department. -Michael L. Sawyers, Superintendent, New Albany-Plain Local Schools.
The graffiti was removed, he said, and vowed that whoever was responsible would face disciplinary action through the district as well as the legal system.
The newspaper reported that this is Peace Week at the school, an annual event since 1999, which this year was dedicated to the issue of human trafficking.