The defacement of about a dozen chalk drawings in support of LGBTQ rights created by student volunteers at their elementary and middle school in Hinesburg, Vermont, is being treated by police as a hate crime.
“Any time an LGBTQ flag or anything of that nature is vandalized, it ups it to a hate crime,” Hinesburg Police Chief Anthony Cambridge told VTDigger, which reports that clean-up costs are estimated at $1,500.
Administrators at Hinesburg Community School, where the vandalism occurred over two incidents earlier this month, are also using the experience as a learning opportunity. VT Digger reports school officials wrote in an email to their staff that “consequences have been assigned [to the students who defaced the artwork in the first incident] and now our focus is on helping the two students learn from their actions.”
School officials believe a different group of students were involved in the second incident.
Reports VTDigger:
The Pride flags and related LGBTQ images were chalked into the sidewalk and walls of the school by student volunteers, with staff supervision, “to show support for our entire HCS community,” according to an email sent on Tuesday from administrators to Hinesburg Community School families.
“In particular, the kids wanted to communicate that we embrace members of our LGBTQIA+ community,” administrators wrote in the email.
“Quite a few” images drawn by students in the display were not related to LGBTQ themes and were not vandalized, Cambridge said.
The department is investigating the weekend incident as a hate crime because of the targeted nature of defacement, he said.
Read the complete VTDigger story here.
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