Chula Vista police are investigating a possible hate crime after disturbing graffiti was found scrawled across the walls at Camarena Elementary School in the South Bay.
The campus was vandalized Saturday night and again overnight into Monday, according to a state district spokesperson.
On Saturday, the campus was tagged with blue and black spray paint in more than 15 different places including walls, doors, windows, signs, and even a mural in a gated portion of campus. The graffiti consisted of racial slurs (towards more than one race), swastikas, plus other concerning words and symbols, Chula Vista Police Department Sgt. Anthony Molina told NBC 7. The graffiti was first discovered just before 8 a.m. on Sunday.
Around 11 p.m. Sunday night, a custodian was on campus cleaning the graffiti and noticed someone on campus. The custodian called police, who arrived, but did not find anyone, according to Molina.
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A local news team arrived at Camarena Elementary around 5 a.m. Monday to report on Saturday night's graffiti, only to find new graffiti near the front of the campus, Molina said. The graffiti had similar messaging and was painted in red, white and silver. Police told NBC 7 that graffiti would have occurred after 11 p.m. and 5 a.m.
In some cases, the messages were written over where parents had spent hours cleaning up the first mess on Sunday afternoon.
CVPD said because of the language written in the graffiti, police are investigating both vandalism incidents as felony hate crimes with thousands of dollars worth of damage.
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Police told NBC 7 they have been at campus since early Monday morning working closely with school staff and communicating with parents to ensure campus safety.
It was not just the graffiti, but the language that is concerning parents. Jason Anderson cares about Camarena Elementary School. Two of his kids are students there.
“Kids are coming in tomorrow morning, and they will be here somewhere around 7:30 a.m. when breakfast opens up and we just don’t want them to come in and see this stuff,” Anderson said.
“Some of the derogatory things that were written and everything, we wanted to make sure that got taken off real quick,” Anderson said.
The district said they do not condone these kinds of acts and they are working diligently to clean the school before students return to campus.
“From what we understand, the district will be out early in the morning to do the bulk painting,” Anderson said.
The school posted on its website it could cost them thousands of dollars in damages.
Christa Alston has a child that attends Camarena.
“These are words that no child, especially an elementary child should be using or saying, some of them appear to be racially motivated and that’s not acceptable in this community,” Alston said. “I just wanted to make sure if they needed another extra hand to come and help as a community, that we’re here to support all of us because they’re kids.”
Alston said it’s not surprising to see a community working as a team to clean up the vandalism because they all care about the students.
“I want it to be a safe place and I think that’s what we all want and while this didn’t necessarily impact their physical safety, it definitely could have impacted their mental and emotional well-being and kind of their innocence,” Alston said.
The spokesperson with the district said the safety of their students is their highest priority and there is no threat to the school.
If you have any information, contact the Chula Vista Police Department, San Diego County Crime Stoppers and 888-580-8477 or you can submit tips anonymously online or through the P3tips mobile application.
