Countywide : Anti-Graffiti Shirts Are a Hit at School

One day last spring when Joani Howe dropped off her 7-year-old daughter at Isojiro Oka Elementary School, a second-grade classroom door was marked by graffiti--and students became upset.

“They really felt violated,” said Howe, of Huntington Beach, whose two children attend schools in the Fountain Valley School District.

After the incident, Howe, 42, got the idea to print up anti-graffiti T-shirts for students to wear.

The shirts read: “Help Stop Crime! It’s a Drag If You Tag.” The design depicts a boy with a spray can standing in front of a wall that says “graffiti” and reminds people that the practice is illegal.

The shirt’s design encourages people to call police if they see graffiti vandals at work and notes that some cities offer cash rewards for turning in graffiti culprits.

Howe said students--as well as teachers, administrators and city officials--are buying and wearing the shirts.

“We’ve had a great reaction,” she said. “They were excited to wear them.”

Her first order of 80 T-shirts was from students and teachers at Oka Elementary School.

“When the kids wear them, they feel like they’re supporting something,” she said.

Linda Bartolomucci, owner of Sunset Screen Printing in Huntington Beach, which is donating the silk-screening costs, said the shirts are for children in elementary and junior high schools.

Howe, a sales representative for the printing firm, said she hopes to sell shirts to city officials, Neighborhood Watch volunteers, school districts, crime prevention organizations and other community groups. So far, she has sold about 100 shirts.

Shirts are only sold in quantities of 24 or more, she said. If there is enough demand for individual orders, Howe said, extra shirts may be made when large orders are printed.

The shirts sell for $5 each for children and $5.50 each for adults.

Howe added: “We’re not doing it for profit. We’re doing it for the cause--to get the word out to kids . . . to make them aware that tagging and graffiti is a crime.”