Vandalism Cleanup Cost Triples at Oxnard Schools

The cost to remove gang graffiti and repair vandalism at Oxnard elementary and intermediate schools has tripled in the last three years, according to a report submitted this week to trustees of the Oxnard Elementary School District.

Elsewhere in the county, school officials report a smaller increase or decline in campus crime. That includes senior high schools in Oxnard, where graffiti and vandalism have increased at a steady but undramatic rate.

But administrators of Oxnard’s 12,500-student elementary school district say gang-inspired graffiti and clothing have filtered down to the city’s primary and intermediate schools and must be eradicated to maintain a healthy educational climate.

“Gang language creates fear for the student who is uninvolved in gangs,” said Ronald D’Incau, principal of Richard Barrett Haydock Intermediate School, one of the schools hardest hit by gang graffiti.

“It’s not a good feeling for a kid to walk in a restroom and see the arrogant slogans of a rival gang written across the mirrors or stalls.”

Despite the dramatic rise in gang visibility, officials say they are determined to keep the campuses the exclusive turf of students.

Administrators in Oxnard, like other school officials in the county, have adopted a quick-strike policy of removing graffiti as soon as it appears. This, they say, will discourage responses from other gangs. Oxnard officials have also prohibited students from wearing gang-related clothing on the district’s 17 campuses.

But efforts to minimize graffiti have led to spiraling costs, according to a report by district facilities Director Jim Ferguson.

The district spent $35,307 to repair acts of vandalism during the 1991 fiscal year that ended June 30, with slightly more than half used to paint over graffiti.

The amount was 70% greater than in the preceding year and followed two years of increases averaging 38%. The money spent last year was more than three times higher than the $11,036 the district spent in the 1988 fiscal year.

The most frequent targets for graffiti are the two intermediate schools in Oxnard--Haydock and John Charles Fremont.

D’Incau said most of the damage comes during weekends, when the Haydock campus is used as a community park by residents in a neighborhood that is short on basketball courts and soccer fields.

“We’re in the midst of a gang rivalry here,” he said about the south-central Oxnard school that members of three rival gangs periodically claim as their own. “Sometimes the little devils like to revamp the school logo above the outdoor stage.”

This spring, D’Incau said, school officials contacted neighbors and asked permission to paint over graffiti on nearby walls and to have students paint murals in their place. The program will begin in earnest this fall, he said.

District Supt. Norman R. Brekke said the rise in graffiti reflects an “expanding gang presence” in Oxnard.

A computer data base of suspected gang members now numbers about 600 individuals, “from the kid who says he’s a member to the hard-core types,” said David Keith, a civilian employee who manages the crime analysis unit of the Oxnard Police Department.

Police gang specialists have advised schools to paint over the gang slogans immediately, Brekke said. “We don’t allow graffiti to last any longer than it takes for someone to come out and paint it over,” Brekke said.

Despite the surge in destructive acts, Brekke said the conversion to year-round schedules has reduced the number of incidents. Before 1976, the schools were “empty and unattended” during the summer when most of the vandalism occurred, Brekke said. Vandalism accounted for up to $70,000 in damage each year, he said.

But in those days, vandalism was the result of “general mischief,” and usually not the work of gangs, Brekke said.

Today, gang and graffiti “tagging” on campus has become a concern to educators. The district can’t allow graffiti “to take free rein,” Brekke said.