A lot of students are seeing graffiti everywhere and are beginning to feel its affects upon the school campus.
According to many, graffiti is happening quickly and some students aren’t aware that tagging not only affects the surface of which they have written on, but that it mostly affects the students of SLz. It is found almost everyday and sometimes, appears every hour. Though the school tries to keep it from happening, it seems that graffiti is beginning to be a daily occurrence at SLz.
It is hard to keep track of what to paint over. According to Head of Security, Assistant Principal Ms. Shauna Howser, “Painting over marked walls, can range from $500 to $2,500, depending where and how big [it is].
Bathrooms are consistently being locked due to graffiti, which causes students to complain.
“It [graffiti] affects everyone because people can’t go to the bathrooms,” Freshman Lauren De Guzman said.
Students aren’t the only ones affected; teachers show their disappointment and frustration about graffiti and how they can only do so much to prevent it.
“It’s disrespectful towards the school campus,” said US History teacher Eugene Santillan. “That money should be spent on students, not on repairing graffiti.”
Nevertheless, teachers are too busy to prevent graffiti and that instead of teachers; students are the ones that need to take charge and some have possible suggestions.
“We should install cameras,” Senior Justin Hua said.
Others made a suggestion that the walls could be covered with something else so students would be less prone to tag.
“They should do a mural to stop graffiti,” Senior Juan Mendoza said.
On the other hand, many students agree that graffiti is an everyday thing.
“[You] can’t stop it [graffiti],” said Sophomore Cassie Senorian.
Howser also knows that there aren’t enough security guards to go around and that a mural idea is a good alternative solution. But, the problem is how big a mural, where, and how much is the cost? Howser further explains about the problem of adding more security, like the cost to add cameras ranges from $25,000 to $50,000; the money could be better spent on the students.
“It’s the student who loses in the end,” said Howser.
Students agree that graffiti is disrespectful and fear that the school appears “ghetto” to other students from other schools.
“The school gets a bad reputation, because kids don’t care about the school,” said Junior Dan Serrano.
Others feel that the graffiti in school is not a form of art and should be left outside of school.
“Graffiti is a formal art form on the streets, but on school, its vandalism,” Senior Ross Valencia said.
A lot of times when people hear the term ‘graffiti’, its commonly assumed that its is gang related. But others believe it’s done because the students are just having fun.
“They do it to rep their gang,” Hua said. “But mostly because they dislike the school.”