Vandals deface Sassarini’s Dr. Seuss mural

Students at Sassarini Elementary School on Fifth Street West got a Grinch-like surprise when they came to school on Monday morning, Dec. 8.

A mural depicting Dr. Seuss characters next to the kindergarten classes had been defaced and vandalized.

“Our students came to school on Monday morning and found many of our murals defaced,” said fourth-grade teacher Maggie Jansen-Pat.

Kindergarten teacher Anne Carroll said the janitorial crew of Sassarini was able to clean and cover the vandalism quickly, but white blocks of paint still cover parts of the mural near images from “The Cat-In-The-Hat” and “Green Eggs & Ham.” Carroll said this was not the first incident of vandalism she’d seen at the school.

“Not too long ago, some of our walls had little swastikas drawn on them. It’s terrible that kids should have to see things like that,” said Carroll.

Jansen-Pat and her fellow fourth-grade teaching colleague Curtis Duff, encourage their students to write about their frustrations at having to see their artwork damaged. The kids wrote an open letter to the vandals

“We are proud of our school and all the hard work we have done to make it look good. Our fifth-graders and kindergartners worked very hard last year to create and paint our Dr. Seuss mural and now it is ruined,” said the kids, who collectively signed the letter as “Sassarini Fourth Grade – Seahawks and Proud.”

Principle Jacqueline Parker said no police report had been filed, though the kids acknowledged that over the years, other works of art on their walls had been defaced.

“We deserve to have our school look good and to feel safe here. Please stop doing things to our property or any public property,” said the fourth graders. It is not nice. How would you feel if it was your home or property being vandalized?”

The kids made the point that a school should be “treated well and with respect.”

“A school is a place for learning and not for you to mess with. Our hard working maintenance workers … have enough work to do without having to clean up after what you did to our school.”