Students walking in through the main office doors at 6:30 am on Sept. 10 were met with a display of graffiti. Only a handful of students witnessed the graffiti, but most were discussing it as the day went on. Sophomore Chloe Swanson is a swimmer who came in early for dryland practice and subsequently, viewed the original graffiti writing. “I was angry because it was very disrespectful to the school and the custodial staff,” Swanson said.

A message was written in blue paint on the pavement in front of door five. The comment was illegible due to it being mostly covered by a sheet, but was signed by “-someone.” Across door five, “MN NICE” was spray painted, continuing around the left corner to the windows which were emblazoned with “OR MN PASSIVE AGGRESSIVE -SOMEONE.” On the brick wall nearby the doors and steps, there was a final statement: “Raised to be Sheep,” signed by “-someone.”

Currently, the crime is under investigation by the Edina police. The nature of the graffiti remains unknown. There are no perceived events or tensions that may have led to the vandalism. “We had a really good first week and we were really surprised about why that happened. But someone decided to air their grievances on our building,” said Principal Andy Beaton.

By 7:00 am, the custodians were erasing the graffiti on the doors and windows. However, when students began arriving for school, the brick wall graffiti remained. By approximately 8:20 am, the custodians were cleaning the wall off. “It was erased quickly to give a sense of normalcy because the graffiti had nothing to do with the 2000+ students that are just going to school here everyday… it doesn’t give an audience to the person that vandalized your building so it’s important to try and remove it,” said Beaton.