Fox School District maintenance staff are busy this morning (April 23) scrubbing walls and other areas outside Seckman High School in Imperial, which was vandalized overnight.
Vandals spray-painted "FOX 2013" and obscene phrases on the outside of the building, on school vehicles and on parts of the newly constructed athletic facilities, Seckman High principal Don Grimshaw said.
"It looks like they started at the loading docks (behind the school) and went around the building (spray-painting)," Grimshaw said. "They got some of the food service trucks and some of the walls and doorways. Then, it looks like they moved out to the field and got the dugouts (at the baseball field), the turf at the baseball field and all the bases."
The district recently installed artificial turf on the baseball infield and the football field and made other improvements at both fields.
Grimshaw said the vandals didn't spray-paint much on the football field, although the school logo on the 50-yard line was damaged.
"They painted the (Jaguar) eye red," he said.
Paint was found on the asphalt track around the football field, but the district is getting ready to place a new surface over that anyway, Grimshaw said.
A shed recently was built behind the visitors' side bleachers, and that was spray-painted, as were pillars on the new gate leading to the football field.
Grimshaw said he was upset to see someone had vandalized the school, especially after all the recent improvements there.
"It's disheartening," he said. "We were given some fantastic facilities to work with. We haven't always had the best fields and we really have something nice now. So, after waiting so long to get something like that, it's disheartening when someone tries to tear it up."
Fortunately, it looks like the maintenance staff will be to remove most of the paint, Grimshaw said.
"It's cleaning up pretty good," he said. "We have 12 guys out there in the rain scrubbing away."
Grimshaw said they're using a product called Vandal Remover to clean paint off the building and Dawn dishwashing liquid to scrub the baseball field turf.
"And a lot of elbow grease," he said. "They're making good progress. So, I feel a lot better now than I did when I first saw it."
Fox assistant superintendent Lorenzo Rizzi, who's in charge of secondary education, said he didn't have an estimate on the damage.
"It will mainly be a lot of labor," he said.
The Jefferson County Sheriff's Office got a call at 5:40 a.m. today about the vandalism, after custodial staff showed up for work this morning, Grimshaw said.
"They (deputies) have gone through the security footage and feel they have high-quality images they can use to complete their investigation."
Rizzi said he, too, was sorry to see the vandalism.
"It's very disheartening for the kids in the community," he said.
Rizzi also said he believes the culprits will be caught.
"We're confident we'll catch them," he said.
Anyone with information about the vandalism is asked to call the Sheriff's Office tip line at 636-797-5515.
PHOTOS: (front page)Vandals painted the Seckman Jaguar's eye red at the football field; (below)The baseball field was heavily vandalized.
--Story by Kim Robertson; Photos by Gordon Bess
