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Kids take aim at vandalism

By: Jessica Selby, Kent County Daily Times

01/25/2006

WASHINGTON - A group of students on the Element Team at Flat River Middle School is spearheading a crusade to end vandalism in the Pawtuxet Valley.
A $400 donation from state Rep. Victor Moffitt has helped the group defray the cost of printing 1,000 anti-vandalism flyers and posters, which are at the forefront of their most recent anti-vandalism campaign.
"Although people may not realize it, vandalism is definitely a problem in our area that can cost people money," said Moffitt. "It is good to see young people making an effort to thwart this problem and my wife, Bertha, and I are happy to make the personal donation to help them."
Taylor Therrien, a seventh-grader on the Element Team at Flat River Middle School, organized a committee with approximately 10 other students, calling it Students Against Vandalism Everywhere, or SAVE. Those students used Moffitt's donation to create the signs. They also came up with the designs for the posters and the catchy slogans that appear on them.
"We wanted to use rhythms so that people would read them and then remember them," Therrien said.
One of the signs reads "Jingle Bells, Jingle Bells, Vandalism Smells." Another reads "It's all Fun and Games Until It's Your Car" and pictures a car with graffiti on its side.
The students hung the signs, which they had laminated, at locations around the Valley that have fallen victim to vandalism. Some are in schools, some were created as flyers and passed out by hand to students, and others are at cemeteries and parks around town.
In November 2005, about 30 headstones at St. Mary's Cemetery in West Warwick were toppled. The cemetery has been struck by vandals on several occasions over the years. Scott Amaral, West Warwick community policing officer, and Detective Mark Bennett contacted the anti-vandalism committee at Flat River Middle School to see if there was anything they, as students, could do to help with the problem.
"The response we received from those students had a very positive affect on our investigation," Bennett said. "Based on what they did, we have issued an arrest warrant for someone in connection with the gravestone toppling in 2004. This definitely was an admirable thing that they did."
It is the first time, according to Amaral, that students at that grade level have ever taken such an active role without an adult driving the mission.
The Coventry Police Department recorded 235 reports of vandalism in 2005.
"I think a lot of people that commit these crimes don't realize how serious they are," said Charlie Blanchette, a teacher on the Element Team at Flat River Middle School. If you're caught, it's not just a slap on the wrist. There are federal laws that protect cemeteries from vandalism, with the cheapest fine for offenders costing around $10,000 and putting them in prison for up to three years.
"This is not a petty crime," he said. "There are a lot of hidden costs involved in these pranks that can cost people or the town a lot of money in an already tight budget. So what ends up happening is taxpayers get shortchanged because someone thinks it's funny to paint on a wall or knock a mailbox or a gravestone over. Well, it's not."
In addition to posting their anti-vandalism posters at schools and frequently vandalized sites in town, the students on the anti-vandalism committee have scheduled assemblies at several of the local elementary schools to help spread their message against vandalism.
"These kids are our future and we want to teach them early on, so that way they are less likely to do something like this later on in life," said Julie Laffen, another seventh-grade member of the anti-vandalism committee.