Lincoln High School vandals paint swastika, break windows

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Police are searching for the person or persons responsible for breaking into Lincoln High School late Monday or early Tuesday. A swastika was painted on a classroom door, two windows were broken and the halls were trashed, school officials said.

(Kasia Hall/ The Oregonian)

A swastika was painted on a classroom door late Monday or early Tuesday at Lincoln High School in Southwest Portland, district officials said. The door has since been sanded down.

Police are searching for the vandal or vandals who broke into Lincoln High School late Monday or early Tuesday and painted a swastika on a classroom door.

Two windows also were broken and the hallways were trashed, said Christine Miles, a Portland Public Schools spokeswoman. By Thursday, the classroom door had been sanded and the windows taped up.

“It’s very disheartening to come back after Martin Luther King Jr. Day to this,” Miles said. “This is a distraction that’s not needed.”

Students said they were confused as to why someone would want to break into the school.

“It would be weird if someone from Lincoln wanted to vandalize Lincoln,” said Missy Gerlach, a senior. “People were most confused by the swastika.”

The school has filed a report with the police, but no arrests have been made.

Students also were asked to write a paper reflecting on the vandalism during their sixth-period classes, said Laura Armstrong, a biology teacher.

“This is definitely something we take very seriously,” she said.

— Kasia Hall

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503-221-8346
@kasiahall