A mother taking her son to the playground of a local elementary school this weekend was shocked to discover hateful graffiti had been plastered over the school building.
ES Richards Elementary was defaced with pink and white paint displaying messages that ranged from antisemitic to anti-gay to anti-Black and anti-fat, leaving the mother to wonder if the vandal had simply painted everything they thought would get a reaction.
“The more tags I saw, the more sick to my stomach and speechless I became,” Sydney Doucet told Daily Hive. “It is extremely disturbing and disgusting that we have people walking around our communities with these thoughts and feelings, especially feeling the need to blast it all over an elementary school.”
Sydney Doucet/Submitted
Sydney Doucet/Submitted
Sydney Doucet/Submitted
Doucet feels grateful that her son isn’t old enough to read yet.
She snapped photos of the graffiti to share with the wider community. She moved to Mission about a year ago and has been enjoying taking her young son to play at the school. She described the graffiti as heartbreaking, saying she couldn’t wrap her brain around why someone would do this.
“No child or parent should be exposed to such language and visuals while trying to enjoy a beautiful time at the park,” she said.
She wondered if the person who painted the graffiti genuinely felt the hatred of the messages, and whether adding security cameras to school grounds could help.
Shelley Carter, board chair of the Mission Board of Education, told Daily Hive the vandalism was “repugnant” and costs money out of the board’s budget to remove, which takes away from other priorities. Still, she said these hateful messages won’t distract schools in Mission from fostering inclusive, kind, and united environments.
“It is particularly upsetting that this would be sprayed on an elementary school for young children to see, and the impact on individuals and communities directly targeted by this hate messaging is incalculable,” Carter said. “So many districts around the province experience this same issue, and it is unfortunate that some individuals think this is appropriate behaviour.”
Daily Hive has reached out to Mission RCMP for more information but has not yet heard back.