Vandals target pride school sidewalks in Regina with grafitti – Regina | 24CA News
A mom and her daughter, who identifies as transgender, see the graffiti over a delight flag painted on the aspect sidewalk at a neighbourhood faculty. The two Regina residents, who want to stay nameless, say the vandalism at Thomson High School is heartbreaking to see.
“As a mother of a child who belongs to this community, I’m terrified as she has to walk to work every day, and she has to walk by this,” the mom stated. “I know she’s an adult, but I still feel like I have to protect her. And I’m scared.”
The mom stated the vandals who painted the inappropriate remarks concerning the 2SLGBTQIA+ neighborhood might need a proper to their beliefs, however she doesn’t perceive why folks need to vandalize property that reveals a neighborhood’s delight.
“I’m fighting for my child’s right to be who she is (and her) right to exist in this community that we’ve chosen to live in. This isn’t a choice for her. This is a way of life,” she stated. “She has to go through this every single day… for her to have to see this every day, it’s not right.”
Thomson High School isn’t the one faculty in Regina that has needed to take care of vandalized faculty sidewalks. The sidewalk in entrance of Balfour Collegiate situated on College Drive was vandalized with derogatory phrases.
The crosswalk at École Harbour Landing School was additionally vandalized in late July with graffiti. Volunteers gathered on July 24 to color over the graffiti.
Global News reached out to the Regina Public Schools for touch upon the episodes of vandalism. In an e-mail response, communication supervisor Terry Lazarou stated they won’t grant interview on the matter presently and famous that vandalism with hateful messages is against the law that’s policed by the Regina Police Service.
“We are very grateful when the community, or the City step up and help repaint the work done by students and staff. Regina Public Schools does work to educate students and communities about why hate speech and hate vandalism is not appropriate,” Lazarou wrote.
“Both the school division and the school communities responded by working with the City of Regina to remove and repaint the hateful material and will continue to do so in the future as long as resources permit. We cannot control hate and ignorance, but we, as a school division and a society, can work to educate our neighbours to create understanding.”
The Regina Police Service (RPS) stated they don’t have knowledge on what number of Regina colleges in Regina have been topic this sort of vandalism, however they’re conscious of comparable situations prior to now.
“We are proud to be an inclusive police service and will continue to work to make our community safe for everyone who lives here,” RPS stated in an e-mail response. “Vandalism is considered public mischief and public mischief is a crime. Simply put — hate speech and hate-motivated vandalism are not welcome in this city.”
The City of Regina stated it is usually conscious there have been acts of vandalism on delight crosswalks painted by organizations prior to now and strongly discourages these acts of vandalism.
“When advised of an incident, the City will work with permittees to facilitate additional road closures at no charge, so that the applicants can remove graffiti or repaint the art as desired,” town said.
“The City does not proactively inspect street art locations for vandalism. However, the City will continue to work with organizations as requested to ensure that public spaces remain welcoming for 2SLGBTQIAP+ people.”
Earlier this month, the sidewalk at a highschool in Indian Head, Sask. was vandalized with derogatory phrases and vulgar photographs on a painted delight flag. Members of the Saskatchewan RCMP and volunteers helped to repaint the sidewalk weeks earlier than faculty begins.
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