Nonnewaug Vandalism Uncharacteristic of This Class, Principal Says

Scrawled letters in red and green spray paint are on the sidewalks and facade of Nonnewaug High School this morning. One broken window has since been fixed.

A police officer doing a routine check early this morning discovered the graffiti and broken window. Nonnewaug Principal Andrew O'Brien said he received a phone call around 2:30 this morning, from Director of Grounds and Maintenance Mike Molzon.

"We didn't see it coming," O'Brien said. "It's very uncharacteristic of this class."

He said school officials are wondering if the person or persons responsible are even current students. Last week, the seniors walked out of school during school hours and congregated in the parking lot, he said.

"They ordered pizza and listened to music," he said. "We had staff out there with them who said, 'Are you going to come back in?' And they said, 'yeah.' No harm was done to buildings, no animals let loose. That speaks to them and their integrity. They're good natured kids, positive and successful. That makes us question why and who."

Junior Matthew Nichols said he thinks the graffiti is a student prank.

"This definitely is a senior prank," he said, adding that he thinks it was done by a few people. "It doesn't fully express the thoughts of the students."

Nonnewaug student Devin Crane said the senior class is really nice. She said the prank may have been funny if it didn't require so much time, effort and money to clean up.

"I just feel really bad for the janitors," Nichols said.

In the past, pranks were relatively harmless, O'Brien said, recalling tires placed on the roof and on the flagpole.

"One year, there were a bunch of forks stuck in the grass to indicate, 'Stick a fork in it, we're done'," he said.

One of the graffiti messages contains a racial slur. O'Brien said he doesn't feel it was directed at a specific group of people but was more in line with street slang. The graffiti case is under investigation.

"We do have leads," he said. "And we're confident that we'll be able to remove it become graduation."

Nonnewaug's graduation is Saturday, June 22. O'Brien said anyone with information can call Nonnewaug's main number at 203-263-2186 or the Woodbury Police at 203-263-3400.

He said he wants the community to know one thing.

"The vast majority of our students are upset and they don't feel it's representative of them," O'Brien said.