A Wyndham Vale primary school has forked out thousands of dollars on graffiti removal and replacing broken windows after vandals have repeatedly trashed the school and neighbouring properties.
Iramoo Primary School assistant principal Ray Burrell said the school and surrounding properties had been the target of vandalism on an almost weekly basis since the Easter school holidays.
Mr Burrell said neighbours’ fences – and in one instance, a neighbour’s car – had also been graffitied.
The most recent offence occurred at 9.45pm on May 6, when the school’s CCTV cameras caught two unidentified female offenders breaking windows and painting graffiti. Neighbouring properties were hit in the same attack.
“The offenders were wearing hoodies during the attack.
“It’s pretty well been every weekend,” Mr Burrell said.
“Sometimes there’s heaps of damage and graffiti, sometimes there’s not so much. It’s very annoying – it’s taking up a lot of our resources and time and money … there just seems to be no end to it at the moment.
“We try and get the graffiti off within 24 hours of it going up.
“We normally get one big graffiti attack once a year, on average, but this has been more consistent … the tags have been the same, so we think it’s the same people doing it.”
Mr Burrell said the school ensured the attacks did not disrupt classes.
In last week’s school newsletter, school principal Moira Findlay called on community members to report vandalism to police.
Senior Constable Kellie Innes from Wyndham Police said they had received one report regarding the May 6 attack.
Information to Crime Stoppers on 1800 333 000.
