Police: Banning High School Targeted by Gangs in Graffiti Incident

Banning police are investigating a gang crime at Banning High School in which multiple parts of the school were tagged with graffiti this week.

Tagging was on a couple different buildings and structures, and pictures from the site indicate one gang was targeting another, and some of the messages included profanity like “F%$# ESBS,” likely referencing the East Side Banning Sapos.

The graffiti was found Thursday morning—but quick work by school staff had it all cleaned up by 9:30 a.m., according to David Sanchez of the Banning Teachers Association.

“We have a proactive group,” Assistant Principal Matt Valdivia told Banning-Beaumont Patch.  “They took care of it in just a matter of hours.”

According to Valdivia, the crime happened sometime in the early morning hours Thursday, and the perpetrators were caught on school surveillance video.

Now, the Banning Police Department’s gang task force is analyzing that video to catch those behind the crime.

“[The gang task force] is trying to determine if they can ID suspects from that video,” Chief Leonard Purvis said, adding that no arrests have been made as of Friday.

According to Chief Purvis, the incident is gang-related.

Valdivia—who said he hasn’t seen anything like this in his three years at the school—also indicated that he believes it was a gang-committed crime, and that school students have been very helpful with coming forward and providing any information they may have on the case.  What’s more—many students even offered to help clean up the mess, though they could not actually help out due to paint fumes, etc.

When asked if he thinks any students were involved in the tagging, Valdivia said he doesn’t think so.

“You never know who’s involved,” he said.  “You would hope not… but you can never be 100% sure.”