A number of mother and father say they have been shocked to discover a hate image spray painted over a Riverview playground devoted to a teen who led a marketing campaign encouraging kindness earlier than she died of most cancers.
“Shock and disbelief and disgust have been the primary few issues that got here to thoughts,” Tosh Taylor stated Monday in regards to the swastikas.
“After which anger hit fairly shortly.”
The swastikas have been painted on numerous items of playground gear, a mural and a stone on the Rebecca Schofield All World Tremendous Play Park beside Frank L. Bowser Faculty.
Lara Lavoie, one other mother or father and a member of the house and faculty committee, stated she noticed the graffiti whereas dropping her baby, who attends Grade 5, in school. Lavoie stated her son was upset as a result of he is aware of the importance of the image.
“He was actually upset and on the lookout for solutions,” Lavoie stated.
The park is known as after Rebecca Schofield, who was 18 when she died of mind most cancers in 2018. Schofield impressed a marketing campaign of random acts of kindness recognized for the hashtag BeccaToldMeTo.
Swastikas have been spray-painted throughout a Riverview playground named after Rebecca Schofield, a teen whose kindness marketing campaign had a worldwide influence.
Greater than $650,000 was raised to rebuild a playground in her title beside the varsity, which was accomplished in 2019.
‘Saddened and disgusted’: Becca’s household
Schofield’s mom, Anne, despatched a assertion to CBC Information, saying the household is “saddened and disgusted {that a} park constructed by and for the neighborhood in honour of Becca and her mission to unfold kindness has been vandalized with hate symbols.”
“The Schofield household condemns antisemitism, hate and discrimination in all its kinds and hope the offender will come ahead,” she wrote, thanking the varsity district and faculty workers for “their fast motion” in overlaying up and eradicating the symbols.
Taylor, additionally with the residence and faculty group, stated the park is a vital a part of the varsity and the neighborhood.
“We helped fundraise for that park, we helped construct that park. Our literal blood, sweat and tears have gone into that park.”
Randy MacLean, superintendent of Anglophone East Faculty District, despatched a memo to folks Monday saying workers arrived on the faculty within the morning to seek out “symbols and phrases of hate and vulgarity.”
Tarps have been used to briefly cowl the vandalism, and the playground was closed for the morning. District workers had eliminated the symbols by noon.
MacLean advised reporters that the district sees vandalism at its faculties, however the image was stunning to see.
“The content material itself was extraordinarily stunning and simply troubling, particularly the place we’re in 2023,” MacLean stated.
MacLean stated he had reviewed safety footage that present somebody spray portray the symbols round 11 p.m. on Sunday. He stated there gave the impression to be one particular person and a automobile within the space.
MacLean declined to elaborate on whether or not the particular person gave the impression to be younger or previous, saying he would let police examine.
The vandalism was reported to Codiac Regional RCMP. CBC Information reached out to the police drive, which confirmed the incident is below investigation.
Taylor and Lavoie stated the committee has been pushing the varsity district to extend in a single day safety for the park.
“When the park was first constructed, there was a significant fundraising, and we now have a portion of these funds saved for repairs of the park and we needed to make use of that towards safety,” Lavoie stated.
“And now we’re simply ready for approval from the district. It’s been a month now. We’re nonetheless ready.”
MacLean stated the district is taking a look at choices for rising safety.