Three youths arrested for vandalizing Calabasas High School, Los Angeles

Juveniles who vandalized Calabasas High School identified by sheriff’s detectives

Detectives with the Malibu/Lost Hills Sheriff’s Station have identified three juvenile subjects who recently vandalized Calabasas High School. The three teenagers are students of the high school.

Initial information obtained by sheriff’s detectives during the investigation provided no evidence of a racial or religious conflict at Calabasas High School. Based on the subjects statements, the spray painted messages were a result of the subjects feeling they had been mistreated during the school year.

The Sheriff’s Department investigation has revealed that the three teenage boys responsible for the vandalism did not intend to target a specific ethnicity or religion.

We have three students who were angry with a number of fellow students and teachers. They showed their frustration by spray painting extremely offensive words and symbols throughout the school grounds. The hurt that this has caused to the students, teachers and community, is much worse than the approximately $2,000.00 in damage to the school grounds.

The words and symbols were not focused on one ethnicity or religion. They included words and symbols that are anti-Semitic, as well as racial insults against African-Americans, and profanities directed at specific students and teachers who had upset them.

Based on the statements of the subjects and the content of their graffiti vandalism, their intent was to upset the people they felt had wronged them, rather than a criminal hate crime.

The subjects displayed remorse for their actions and a heightened understanding of the pain that they have caused. Because they are minors, no further information will be provided about their identities. Detectives are seeking criminal prosecution for felony vandalism and reimbursement to the school for the cost of the damages. The criminal investigation will continue with the eventual presentation of the evidence to the Los Angeles County District Attorney’s Office at Juvenile Court. All three are being arrested today.