School Officials Sue Parents of Suspects in Campus Vandalism : Civil action: The Buena Park school district seeks to recover more than $13,000--what it will cost to repair graffiti damage.

Buena Park School District officials have filed a lawsuit against the parents of eight students who are accused of vandalizing two campuses with graffiti, causing more than $13,000 in damage.

The students, all boys ages 10 through 15, are accused of spray-painting doors, walls and drinking fountains and using glass cutters to etch monikers on windows at Arthur F. Corey Elementary School, the lawsuit alleges. The suit also says some of the boys etched names into windows at Buena Park Junior High School. Damage was put at more than $13,000.

“What we’re saying here is . . . when vandalism occurs at school, those youngsters and their parents will be held responsible, and we will do what we can to prosecute them,” district Supt. Jack Townsend said. “We’re not going to stand for it.”

The civil suit, filed in Municipal Court in Fullerton Feb. 17, names as defendants the eight boys and their parents. It seeks $13,275 to pay for repairs at the two schools.

According to Buena Park Junior High officials, that school sustained about $1,500 in damage. The remainder would be for damage to Corey.

Ronald D. Wenkart, senior attorney for the Orange County Department of Education, which is representing the school district, said the lawsuit is the first of its kind to be filed by his department.

“The school district is upset about this--they don’t want to tolerate this,” Wenkart said. “Basically, they just want to recover the damages suffered. This is a fair amount of money, and the school district feels it’s entitled to recover the damages.”

According to officials, 43 classroom windows, six office windows and four sliding-glass door windows were damaged at Corey Jan. 17. Spray paint and pens were used to write graffiti, officials said.

At the junior high, seven office windows, four sliding-glass doors and six classroom windows were scratched with graffiti, officials said.

“You can paint over a door or block wall, but an etched window is permanent and costly to replace,” Townsend said.

Buena Park police Sgt. Terry Branum said the suspects, whose names were withheld because of their ages, were arrested Jan. 19 on suspicion of malicious mischief and later released to their parents. Branum said they were identified by two students who saw them at Corey and later told the school principal.

Branum said arrests in graffiti cases are unusual, mainly because of the nature of the crime.

“Usually, you don’t catch many of them,” he said. “There is certainly more graffiti that goes on.”

Because the damage was more than $5,000, the suspects could face felony charges, said Lee Staton, supervising deputy of the juvenile branch of the Orange County district attorney’s office.

One mother whose 14-year-old son was among those arrested said it is unfair that her son is included in the lawsuit.

“What I’m upset about is, they’re trying to link him to be a tagger--and he’s not,” said the mother, who asked that her name not be used to protect her son’s identity.

She acknowledged that her son “did do something he shouldn’t have done,” but she said that this was the first time he had been involved in any vandalism and that he only did minimal “scribbling.”

“He’s very upset, and he’s very ashamed he did it,” she said. She described her son as a “good kid who has never been in trouble.”

She said that although she should pay for his wrongdoing, she believes he is “being used as a scapegoat.”

Corey Principal Jerry Horton said his school has never suffered graffiti damage to that extent before.

“It’s big-time bucks. The No. 1 goal is to make kids think twice before they do it,” he said of lawsuit.

Linda Wheeler, Buena Park Junior High assistant principal, said the school has had only minor graffiti incidents before, “but now it’s the ‘in’ thing to be part of a tagging crew,” she said.

Townsend said the damage is disheartening.

“It’s a matter of diminishing resources, and we really don’t have the extra money to spend on cleaning up somebody’s graffiti,” he said. “But we’re really serious about holding people accountable for what they do.”