Calabasas High Graffiti: 3 Boys Who Sprayed Swastikas Say They Were Bullied

By Simone Wilson Wed., Apr. 27 2011 at 12:20 PM

Sheriff: Not hateful, just bitter

The three male Calabasas High School students who admitted to tagging their campus in swastikas, racial slurs and personal attacks will not be prosecuted for a hate crime.

Why? L.A. County sheriff's officials say the graffiti was not, despite appearances, racially motivated -- instead just a consequence of "the
subjects feeling they had been mistreated during the school year."

The anti-semitic (and otherwise hateful) doodles were thrown up around campus last Friday night, right before a Holocaust survivor was set to speak on campus.

That event was quickly canceled, and has since been replaced by the sheriff's special anti-bullying/anti-hate seminar, named Stop Hate and Respect Everyone. It's described as "an award-winning program created to educate members of the community, particularly our youth, regarding the dangers of hate and intolerance."

The sheriff's newest statement tries to get at the deeper motives behind the tag spree:

We have three students who were angry with a number of fellow students and teachers. ...
The words and symbols were not focused on one ethnicity or religion. They included words and symbols that are anti-Semitic, as well as racial insults against African-Americans, and profanities directed at specific students and teachers who had upset them.

Based on the statements of the subjects and the content of their graffiti vandalism, their intent was to upset the people they felt had wronged them, rather than a criminal hate crime.

For video footage of the graffiti, see our original report: "Calabasas High School Hate Crime: L.A. Sheriff Tracks Graffiti Suspects on Facebook."

The sheriff's investigation also found "no evidence of a racial or religious conflict at Calabasas High School," a campus composed principally of well-off white kids (including many of Middle Eastern and Jewish descent).

For those who attend or live nearby: What do you think? Is Calabasas High free of racism? Has bullying been a big problem? Let us know.

[@simone_electra/swilson@laweekly.com]

Tags:

anti-semitic, bullying, Calabasas High, graffiti, hate crime, racism, students, taggers

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woodland hills

fuck that.. arrst and rape these fucks... only because these kids were from calabasas were they treated this way.... fuck you rich fuck kids

Guest

one was arrested the other two are in trouble.

Fucku

stfu

watching

so, the police spokesman is now an apologist for the hateful act of three 11th graders against their classmates, teachers and school.

hmmmmmmmm.

shame on the sherrif's office for the last 24 hours of characterizations. "not as black and white as it seems." actually, it is.

I don't care about remorse or a heightened sense of awareness. that always happens when you are staring at expulsion and jail time. I'd have been surprised if they failed to apologize and grovel.

the school owes it to the entire student body to remove them for good.

the DA's office owes it to the entire community -- and anyone watching -- to throw the book at them for hate crimes AND vandalism. There is a long list of hate criminals -- some who started that way and meant for it to happen, and others, who kinda backed into it -- and, now, it includes these three poor excuses for human beings.

Guest

more like they did not want to draw attention to the fact that the kids were muslim i believe. they kept this on the downlow. one was arrested and the other two were expelled.