Lincoln schools offering cash for information on vandals who attacked school, car
The Chrysler PT Cruiser used for driver's education training sits damaged after vandals smashed the windshield as a part of a senior prank.
Courtesy of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office
Editor's note: A photo below of the graffiti contains profanity. This story also has been updated with the cost of cleaning the high school.
Deputies and school officials are looking for information — and offering reward money — as they search for the culprits responsible for smashing a windshield on a driver’s education car and spray painting lots of vulgar terms on Lincoln High School last week.
Washtenaw County Sheriff’s Office spokesman Derrick Jackson said the vandalism occurred between 2 and 7 a.m. Tuesday at the school, located at 7245 Willis Road. Jackson said the profane spray paint included the hashtag #LHS12 for students to talk about the prank on the social networking site Twitter.
The driver’s education training vehicle, a Chrysler PT Cruiser, was spray painted with the hashtag and had extensive damage done to the windshield, Jackson said.
Almost a week later, school officials are offering $200 to anyone who can give information that leads to an arrest and conviction for the damage, Jackson said.
The graffiti on the school has been removed, said principal John Dignan.
Superintendent Ellen Bonter said the district hired a professional restoration and cleaning crew — at a cost of about $9,000 — to come during the weekend to wash the vulgar language off the building. She added once the culprits are identified, the district will seek restitution for the expense.
“At this point, we don’t know if the students (who participated in the vandalism) were graduating seniors or not,” Dignan said. “There seemed like a lot of bitterness in what was written.”
This photograph shows one of the graffitied areas that Jackson said was among the least profane.
Courtesy of the Washtenaw County Sheriff's Office
He said it is possible the students who participated in the so-called "prank" were seniors who did not meet the requirements for graduation or were dropouts that had ill feelings toward the school.
Jackson said there are no suspects' descriptions available in the case right now, but the investigation is ongoing.
Ann Arbor.com K-12 education reporter Danielle Arndt contributed to this report.
Kyle Feldscher covers cops and courts for AnnArbor.com. He can be reached at kylefeldscher@annarbor.com or you can follow him on Twitter.
Comments
grimmk
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 12:43 p.m.
Why is it that you can post a picture with profanity on it but if we even use the word D#%M or H*!! we can't post?
Bob
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 6:04 p.m.
I'm guessing you mean D#%N . . .
Ricebrnr
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 1:26 p.m.
cuz one is "news" and the other, your opinion?
ranger007
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 4:54 a.m.
Is there a reason you didn't block out the nice 4guy letter word on the bottom of the picture?
ranger007
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 4:55 a.m.
* 4 letter word not "4guy letter"
Dog Guy
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 2:30 a.m.
I would blame extreme inattention by the vandals' fathers were they known.
EyeHeartA2
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 3:05 a.m.
To the world at large, or the vandal's mothers?
tom swift jr.
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 10:34 p.m.
"at a cost of about $9,000 " .... I'm in the wrong business!
Fred Crothers
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 10:12 p.m.
OH but we don't want any cameras around the building that would mean you don't trust the students wouldn't it? NOT!! TRASH like this needs to STOP! Yes I was a kid once but this isn't cute! It is time for the parents to stand up and take responsibility for their kids! They (the parents) need to know where and WHAT their kids are doing!
lisam
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 9:07 p.m.
Doesn't anyone teach their children anymore...not to touch what doesn't belong to you? I don't get it. When and if they are caught...please...more than a harsh talking to or slap on the wrist....make THEM pay...not the parents. After all said and done we are all responsible for our actions and just because they are juveniles (if that is the case).....hold them accountable. Parents, don't bail them out.
grimmk
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 12:41 p.m.
Agreed. If and when caught they should do hours of community service cleaning graffiti off buildings and picking up trash by the highway. The hours should equal how much money it would take to fix all their vandalism. So.. $9,000/7.40 (min wage) = ~ 1216 hours. I hope for their sakes it wasn't just one person.
lisam
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 11:04 p.m.
What I mean is....when it comes to damage...someone has to pay the cost for the damage and with the kids usually not having that kind of income, they need to WORK...and pay their parents back. No freebies necessary. I do agree, children are a product of their environment and if they had some true values instilled, for the most part, this type of behavior would have never occurred....not all...because some kids will just do stupid things and follow along. It had to be someones braniac idea and pull others into it.
Goober
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 9:56 p.m.
Hold all of them accountable - parents and the kids.
RJA
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:44 p.m.
Oh how I wish we could fix STUPID! Vandals continue to be vandles.
All StarDrivereducation
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:26 p.m.
All Star Driver Education has already repaired the car. Segment 1 drivers ed still on for Monday, June 11th at Lincoln High School. #LHS12 --All*
Ann English
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 11:15 p.m.
I've seen All Star Driver Education vehicles here in Ann Arbor, both red and white vehicles, but I would never have guessed that they were PT Cruisers. I had thought that All Star Driver Education was independent of any high school connections. A student in a white All Star vehicle got off M-14 with me yesterday. Is this the Lincoln Consolidated school with an Abraham Lincoln statue in front of it, and a church to the west of it? I've been to that area, taking Whittaker Road to get to that church. But I never realized how close Whittaker is to Hitchingham Road until I saw the accompanying map.
Goober
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 6:41 p.m.
I keep saying that parents have lost control of their kids, but my voice seems to be in the minority. Many disagree with me. In fact, some have said that they work or are too busy and do not know their kids might be out at night. We need to face the facts that we have lost control of our kids. This type of problem seems to be growing.
masticate
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 11:55 a.m.
@ Enso, Capitalism is about the only thing that HASN'T failed families in the ghetto. Look around there sometime. Do they have cars? Cellphones? TVs? Yes. Capitalism. What is failing? Healthcare. Schools. Public programs. To blame an economic system for a parent's failure to teach their children how to function in society is just silly. Also, in my experience, the children who have the hardest working parents end up the most productive and ambitious.
lisam
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:51 p.m.
Certain people lost control of their kids????....certain people never HAD control of their kids when they were little....and that is why....they do what they do now. And when they do what they do...."OMG....not my child."
Enso
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:35 p.m.
@ aroo I'm not implying that stay at home parents are on welfare. But I'm willing to bet your husband makes more than $33,000 per year (the median income in the US). And if so, good for you, you are wealthier than over half of the people in this country.
aroo_mama
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 8:07 p.m.
@Enso, I stay at home with our kids while my husband works, and we do NOT get any form of government aid or live in the ghetto. Do we have the best of everything? No. We don't go on huge vacations or have the fanciest house/cars/gadgets. The material possessions don't really matter to us - the well being of our family does matter. @Goober, I agree with you...too many parents want to be their kids friends over being their parent and enforcing rules & consequences.
Enso
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 7:30 p.m.
Blame capitalism. Having two parents work all day, possibly different shifts, is no way to raise children. And it's impossible to have a stay at home parent, unless you live in the ghetto and are being subsidized by the state. There is enough money in this country for one parent to stay home while the other works. Remember what the middle class used to be? back in the 50s and 60s? This country has even more money now that it did then, the problem is it is more highly concentrated in the hands of a few than it has even been in the history of this country. And when a few people want more than they could even spend, the rest of us have to suffer.
ypsilistener
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 6:02 p.m.
Just wondering what took so long for this story to be published. It was on Facebook almost immediately.
Dog Guy
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:27 p.m.
Disabling the driver's training car calls for an attitude adjustment from a group of 15-year-olds.
grimmk
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 12:38 p.m.
And a lot of disappointment from 15-year-olds. How are they going to learn to drive?
glimmertwin
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:22 p.m.
It couldn't be students that dropped out or couldn't graduate. If you can't graduate from Lincoln, than there is no way they could have spelled correctly in their graffiti.
hockeymom
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 10:47 a.m.
glimmertwin: Check your grammar. Perhaps a Lincoln HS student could tutor you in English?
Basic Bob
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 6:08 p.m.
After all, there's nothing worse than misspelled graffiti. Hopeful the requisite cartoons were anatomically correct, proving that they were paying attention in biology class.
smokeblwr
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:11 p.m.
Was there feces involved in this prank?
u812
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:08 p.m.
kids are off the hook nowadays,I would have gotten Beaten for this.
ranger007
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:49 p.m.
That's the problem kids arnt and some need a stiff kick in the hind end
Ricebrnr
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 5:01 p.m.
umm no, this is not a "prank" this is outright vandalism. Associating this with whimsical and funny young adult enthusiasm is wrong.
rainy
Tue, Jun 5, 2012 : 12:41 p.m.
Totally agreed!
Bobby
Mon, Jun 4, 2012 : 7:25 p.m.
agreed