Abbotsford high school hit with racist, sexist graffiti

ABBOTSFORD (NEWS 1130) – Crude images including a swastika were sprayed on the outside walls and doors of the Abbotsford School of Integrated Arts (ASIA) Sumas Mountain Campus over the weekend.

Now, police are getting involved.

Messages like “mens rigts”, “white power”, and “grad 2017” were still on the building when students came back to class this morning, according to Abbotsford police constable Ian MacDonald.

“We certainly wouldn’t want to connect this at this point in the investigation to anything that’s grad-related,” he says. “We certainly don’t know if the suspect or suspects actually have any direct connection to ASIA school.”

MacDonald recalls a similar incident which targeted the Twisters Gym a few years ago. In that case, the culprits were revealed to be young people who were trying to frame another young person.

Teacher Lyndsey Erin documented the vandalism in a public Facebook post Sunday.

“Sad that our amazing school, ASIA Sumas, was vandalized with this disgusting message… sad that a mural that our students worked very hard on was destroyed with hate,” she writes.

Abbotsford police have also had to look into the distribution of KKK flyers, and a racist rant which was recorded and posted online. Despite these recent events, MacDonald does not think the city has a racism problem.

“I think our community is engaged, it’s caring, it’s very tolerant, and certainly when incidents like this happen, resoundingly the community comes together to say that it’s not appropriate.”

If caught, MacDonald says the vandals could face mischief charges.