By Mikayla van Loon
Victoria Road Primary School has become the next vandalism victim with the school property damaged over the weekend of 27 and 28 August.
Among the damage was a smashed safety glass window and graffiti tags plastered on bench seats, doors and play equipment, some displaying crude and explicit language.
Assistant principal Jane Searle said this left the entire school community disappointed and devastated by the behaviour of people in the area.
“Two of our teachers, who were at school on Sunday (28 Aug) to prepare for book week, saw the graffiti and were able to clean most of it off prior to the students coming on Monday morning,” she said.
“Vandalism, such as what occurred on the weekend, means that time and money, which would otherwise be invested into our students, goes into organising and paying for repairs to be done.”
Lilydale Police confirmed members were investigating the incident, with the crime squad collecting fingerprints and photographs at the site.
“We’re currently submitting the graffiti tag to our Graffiti Watch Group because we do have a list of all the graffiti tags, just to make further inquiries in that fashion,” a spokesperson said.
Uniform police officers have identified a person of interest and suggested “it might be related to earlier incidents, early this year and late last year, at the same school.”
Being quite involved in the broader community, Ms Searle said the school has a lot of pride in its engagement with people and places from the local area.
“We make an intentional effort to be involved in the community. We have older members of the community who do gardening on a weekly basis and take great pride in maintaining our school grounds.
“We are involved in local sporting clubs and hold special events in the community such as the Community Expo which we ran earlier this year. We are very invested in our local community and the richness this brings to our students.”
Through these connections, Victoria Road Primary School hopes someone may have information about what occurred or the graffiti tags that were used.
Anyone who may be able to assist police with their investigation should contact Lilydale Police Station on 9739 2300.
