Ojai Unified School District buildings, preschool vandalized with anti-mask graffiti-CBS Los Angeles

OJAI (CBSLA) “Anti-mask graffiti was discovered scrawled at Ojai Unified School District offices and a preschool early Monday morning,” district officials said.

(Credit: James Forsythe)

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“Unmask my kids” was scraped with red spray paint in four locations, including a preschool building on the property, according to Superintendent Dr. Tiffany Morse. The vandalism was discovered Monday morning at 6 p.m.

Pictures of the graffiti were posted on Facebook by teacher James Forsythe.

“I am deeply outraged at the vandalism that is taking place in Ojai Unified,” he wrote in his post. “This is a form of intimidation and terrorism directed at school officials and students.”

The vandalism follows a relatively large protest of as many as 100 people who went to the district offices on Friday to protest over masking mandates. It was preceded by a chaotic Wednesday board meeting where between 30 and 50 people signed up to speak out against vaccine and mask mandates.

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Morse said the district has had ongoing problems with a contingent of parents who do not want to put masks on their children, similar to scenes that have been played at school board meetings across the country – but it has had a major impact on a small community like Ojai.

“Ojai has a reputation for being a Shangri-la,” she said.

But Morse said the continued hostility and vandalism of district offices for the first time has made her worried about her safety.

“I’m not easily scared,” Morse said. “I’m in a place now where I’m worried.”

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But there is good news – Morse said the organizer of Friday’s protest reached out to offer to help clean up the vandalism. The cleanup, which is being handled by district staff, continued until Tuesday, and Morse said she expected the cost of the damage to be below $ 500.

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