South Simcoe police are investigating after officers were called to Nantyr Shores Secondary School in Innisfil, where a sign was defaced with racist graffiti.
Officers were called to the scene at Anna Maria Avenue at about 11:30 a.m. on Tuesday, said Sue Sgambati, corporate communications specialist for the South Simcoe Police Service. At this time, she added, officers are treating what happened as an isolated incident.
According to Sgambati, the racist graffiti was in the form of wording and imagery.
“There’s a…digital sign out on the road and it’s got a metal frame, and it was on the metal frame of that digital sign,” Sarah Kekewich, the communications manager of the Simcoe County District School Board, told Global News.
As soon as the school board was informed of the vandalism, Kekewich said, its facilities team assessed the damage and is looking at repairing the sign.
“At this point, they’ve covered up the graffiti, and then they’ll work out the more permanent solution to fix that damage,” Kekewich said. “We take great pride in our properties and our facilities, and so we don’t tolerate that kind of damage.”
According to Sgambati, the incident has not been designated as a hate crime at this point in time. “It’s early in the investigation to make any sort of determinations. We need to find out who’s responsible for this and why specifically they did it, and then we’ll know more about the classification of it,” she said.
Sgambati said officers are checking with the school for security footage and are exploring every avenue to try and determine the timeline of the reported incident.
“We have no suspect information at this time. That’s why we’re reaching out to the public and we’re exploring all the avenues,” Sgambati said.
Any witnesses or people in the area with security footage can contact the South Simcoe Police Service.
The investigation is ongoing.