This post was contributed by a community member. The views expressed here are the author's own.

Schools

Franklin High School Vandalized Prior to Eagle Rock Showdown

The graffiti tagged on FHS' field house said derogatory things about the Panthers, while praising Eagle Rock High School.

The biggest rivalry in Northeast Los Angeles was the motivation behind an act of vandalism that was discovered at Franklin High School Friday morning.

"I got to work about 7 a.m. and found graffiti on the west side by the athletics section of our campus," Franklin principal Joseph Nacorda said. "There were about 18 different [tags] all around the field house, which is our varsity football locker room."

Nacorda said the vandalism, which was done in green spray paint, bad-mouthed Franklin and praised Eagle Rock High School.

Among the obscenities that marked up the field house included sayings such as "Traitor", "Eagle Rock House"and "F--k FHS."

Nacorda added that certain jersey numbers from Franklin's team had also been spray painted on the walls.

Nacorda said there are no leads on who committed the vandalism.

"I took a lot of pictures then took them over to the principal here and he immediately did a PA announcement," Nacorda said.

ERHS principal Salvador Velasco said in the announcement that Eagle Rock needed to be sportsmanlike and have to be in good character, according to Nacorda.

Eagle Rock sophomore and recent transfer from Roybal High School Hector Regaldo, 15, was unaware of the situation.

"I didn't hear the announcement or anything about the vandalism," the ERHS junior varsity football player said.

Velasco said the vandalism that was attributed to some of his students, had not been proved to be by them and he doesn't believe they would do such a thing.

"We lose on the field, court or swimming pool, we don't go around destroying other peoples property," Velasco said. "As far as I'm concerned, I hope the culprits are found and discipline is provided to whoever they are."

Nacorda said Franklin usually takes preventive measures to avoid such acts when it comes to senior pranks, such as leaving the lights on the fielded and having security stay overnight.

However in this case, FHS had its usual security and janitorial staff closer to the main campus.

According to Franklin senior Jaime Salguero, 17, the graffiti had been painted over by the start of second period which begins at 8:40 a.m.

"Nobody really saw it," she said.

FHS senior Cindy Reyes, 17, thought the act was "pretty immature".

"I knew we were going to smash on them, so the only way they could hurt us was by doing something like this, not by winning," Reyes said.





Find out what's happening in Highland Park-Mount Washingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

We’ve removed the ability to reply as we work to make improvements. Learn more here

The views expressed in this post are the author's own. Want to post on Patch?

More from Highland Park-Mount Washington