WRITTEN BY ZACHARY BUENAVENTURA, RIELLE CHLOE CANLAS, SAMARA CHAVEZ, and JILL LUNA
Edited by Kyle Abadilla Here at VAAS, graffiti has suddenly become an active occurrence in our school bathrooms. In the beginning of fall 2022 semester, various tags were seen in the girls and boys bathroom. This has led to the closure of bathrooms on the first floor. Due to this inconvenience, the VAAS custodians have had to spend extra time on cleaning up this disarray. However, in the Spring 2023 semester, more of these tags have been appearing in the boys bathroom rather than the girls. Graffiti has been an issue before at VAAS. However, this issue has evolved from when it started. When interviewing Ms. Hanock, she informed us that this issue has progressed to happening four to five times more than it would have in previous years. This change became noticeable from the first week of school. At the beginning of the school year, graffiti could be found in multiple locations all in one day. In the past, the graffiti issue was easier to tackle. When asked about how graffiti was handled in previous years, Ms. Hanock informed us that the school would share that the graffiti issues were occurring, and through word of mouth, students would share how disrespectful these actions were. Ms. Hanock also had this to say towards the culprits of the constant tagging. “I would like to remind everyone that our VAAS culture has been carefully nurtured by members of our school community -- students and staff -- over the last eleven years; it doesn't just happen. I wish the culprits understood the level of disrespect they are exhibiting to everyone else here. It matters that we all care about each other.” She continued, “The vandalism that has occurred this year has been done by just a few students. I appreciate everyone else who has taken the time to care about our community and to treat others with respect. We have the greatest student body in all of LAUSD, and it shows.” In conclusion, school tagging and graffiti is unacceptable for a variety of reasons. For starters, it causes damage to public property and costs extra unnecessary work for the custodial staff to clean up. It’s also considered vandalism and is illegal. It can create a negative and unsafe environment for students and faculty at the school, and is extremely immature for this issue to continue into the spring semester of the school year. Tagging and graffiti detracts from the school's overall appearance, which can have an impact on its reputation and the community's perception of it. Finally, school tagging and graffiti have no positive effects and only add to the problems for everyone involved. Comments are closed.
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EditorZachary Buenaventura Author
Yuliana Altamirano CategoriesArchives
June 2023
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