Antisemitic messages found outside elementary school in Tarzana
Hateful message found at elementary school
Several swastikas were discovered etched on a banner outside Wilbur Charter for Enriched Academics in Tarzana, a heavily Jewish community, on Sunday morning.
LOS ANGELES - Several swastikas were discovered etched on a banner outside an elementary school in Tarzana on Sunday morning.
The discovery was made on the fence banner wrap outside Wilbur Charter for Enriched Academics. The vandalism occurred along the sidewalk where kids between 5 and 11 years old will be walking to class Monday morning. Neighbors say it’s also a heavily Jewish community.
"Both of us have family who were either in hiding or survived the Holocaust," said Michelle Eskenazi-Wasser. "To have that imagery right here in our backyard literally, it’s a lot."
Surveillance video from overnight Saturday shows someone etching the hate symbol into the school’s banner.
"It makes me feel really disappointed, because what did we do to them?" said Oliver Nemes, a student at Wilbur. "Why would someone just walk out of their car and decide to vandalize our school property with a hate crime? That’s really bad."
About a month ago, someone also drew swastikas on the same banner. For that occurrence, neighbors painted over the anti-Semitic message and turned them into hearts.
"It happened about a month ago and it was also swastikas," said Adeena Bleich, a parent. "A lot of the parents are very concerned about the overall safety of the neighborhood."
On Sunday, school personnel, members of the community, and police arrived within hours to remove the banners.
"I’m just glad to see that they took it down very fast because there’s school tomorrow," said Nemes.
A spokesperson from Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) provided FOX 11 with the written statement below.
"The safety and well-being of students and staff remains a top priority for Los Angeles Unified School District," said the LAUSD spokesperson. "This weekend, it was discovered that the campus of Wilbur Charter for Enriched Academics was vandalized with culturally offensive graffiti. Staff has removed the graffiti and is currently investigating the incident. We are deeply disturbed by this incident and remain committed to educating our students about cultural diversity and the importance of tolerance and inclusion. Mental health resources will be available on campus for those who may be impacted by this incident."
Anyone with information about this case is urged to contact Los Angeles police.