Vandalism Blues
“While I was sitting down, I saw something that drove me crazy. Somebody’d written ‘F*** Y**’ on the wall. It drove me damn near crazy. I thought how Phoebe and all the other little kids would see it, and how they’d wonder what the hell it meant, and then finally some dirty kid would tell them…I tried to rub it off with my hand, but this one was scratched on, with a knife or something. It wouldn’t come off. It’s hopeless, anyway. If you had a million years to do it in, you couldn’t rub out even half the ‘F*** Y**’ signs in the world.” – The Catcher in the Rye, J.D. Salinger
Sitting in the school library during a faculty meeting today, I was reminded of the famous graffiti rant made by Holden Caufield in The Catcher in the Rye. Posted on the wall next to my table was a poster advertising a high school math and science tutoring program run by Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology. The program provides high school students homework help from college students via a free 1-800 hotline. Based on the information in the poster “Ask Rose,” seemed like a great program. Nevertheless, someone still took it upon themself to scrawl the word “b***h” across the bottom of the document.
Vandalism of this nature is not completely unheard of at my school. I’ve seen “F*** School” carved into cafeteria tables. We have textbooks with “school sucks,” written across the pages in black sharpie. Students routinely use the bathroom walls as a forum to spread vulgar rumors and insults.
Smoke Weed? 420? Whatever happened to 867-5309?
Lately, the vandalism has taken on a marijuana theme (perhaps in celebration of the informal Weed Holiday, April 20th aka 420). For the last week, the men’s room has become a marijuana wailing wall of sorts with students paying tribute to the drug by scribling sentiments like “get high,” “smoke weed,” “420 forever,” and “i love weed” on the smooth portions connecting the concrete bricks in the wall. Each night the custodians wipe or paint the slate clean, only to have a new crop of messages appear the next day. It’s the janitorial equivalent of the Wack-a-Mole game.
I'm Sure We Can All Enjoy the End of School Without a Bong, Thank You.
Classrooms are not immune from the pro-weed vandals either. Last Monday a substitute was in my room while I attended a conference. I returned the next morning to find a drawing of a foot-high (no pun intended) bong burning furiously on the white board beneath my “End of the Year Coutdown.”
When I see this junk on the walls, tables, and books around the school, I always wonder what the students think about it.
Do they think it is funny? Does it bother them? Are they numb to it? Does it encourage them to misbehave? (Broken Windows theorists would say, yes)
I know how I feel. Like Holden Caufield.
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