Inclusive Riverview, N.B. playground vandalized with swastikas

Content warning: This story contains an image of an offensive symbol. Discretion is advised.

Lara Lavoie was shocked to see swastikas painted on the playground of Frank L. Bowser elementary school when she dropped off her children on Monday morning.

“We were pretty upset,” she said.

“My child is 11 so he understands what the swastika is and what it represents so it was especially upsetting for him,” she said.

Anglophone East School District superintendent Randy MacLean said he was “shocked, dismayed and disappointed” to see the antisemitic symbols on the playground on Monday morning.

Staff covered the vandalized parts of the playground with tarp before the graffiti was removed early in the day on Monday.

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MacLean said the culprits were caught on security camera footage at 11 p.m. on Sunday night.

The district has shared the footage with the Codiac RCMP.

The playground was renovated in 2019 to become an accessible and inclusive playground in honour of Rebecca Schofield, a Riverview teen who inspired acts of kindness through her #BeccaToldmeTo social media campaign.

Schofield passed away from brain cancer in 2018.

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Her mother Anne Schofield told Global News in a statement that her family is “extremely saddened and disgusted that a park build by and for the community in honour of Becca and her mission to spread kindness has been vandalized with hate symbols,” and said the Schofield family condemns “antisemitism, hate and discrimination in all it’s forms.”

MacLean said the park, like other parks in the Anglophone East School District, has been vandalized in the past.

“In each one of our schools we deal with vandalism,” he said in an interview.

He said the district was working with the school, municipalities as well as the RCMP to explore “opportunities” to ensure the safety of the park.

Lavoie, who is also a member of the parent school support committee is calling for increased security at the park.

“We have the funding which we already fundraised for, we’re waiting for approval (from the school district) to spend it,” she said.

MacLean said educational support staff was on site on Monday morning to teach children about the meaning of the graffiti.

“We made sure everything was removed as much as it could be or replaced or whatever it needed, but the education component is the heavy lifting,” he said.