Recently, graffiti on PV’s campus has resulted in time and money withdrawn from the district. The vandals caught have received punishment as severe as Juvenile Hall.

    “In the past, people have been cited, arrested, transported to Juvenile Hall on a criminal offense, and others have been suspended and expelled from PV,” said Principal John Shepherd.

    This recent vandalism causes teachers to enforce a timed pass policy in which students must receive special passes to leave class to go to the bathroom and Health Office.

    “This rule has always been here but a few students’ decisions have negatively affected the freedoms of a large number of students,” said Shepherd.

    Now with the rule more strictly enforced, other students have to pay for the actions of others.

    “I think it’s disrespectful to graffiti and it’s lame now that we have to have passes for everywhere we go,” said sophomore Marisha Daniels.

Vandalism has brought other problems upon the school.

When any part of this school gets tagged, much time and money goes into fixing it.

    “It takes at least 30 minutes to clean up. It’s harder to get off of the coarse walls and it stays on the new bathrooms,” said custodian Dennis LaRose.

    The effort involved in cleaning up the graffiti not only depends on the surface but also the marking substance involved.

 “They use a lot of pens, permanent markers, spray cans and stencils,” said LaRose.

    The cleaning of the graffiti takes away from the custodians’ time and also from the district.

     “It takes time to investigate the vandalism which is incurred by a vice principal, a teacher, campus supervisor, the Chico Police Department and clerical staff,” said Shepherd.

    Some places are tagged more often than others.

    “[Graffiti often occurs in] all the boys’ bathrooms and some of the girls’. The I [building] bathrooms get hit a lot. It’s all in the bathrooms, on the stall walls and the doors,” said LaRose.