Vandals Deface Mural at School

A mural at a Northridge elementary school that pictured youths of various races and ethnic groups has been defaced by vandals who marred it with racial and religious epithets, Los Angeles police said Wednesday.

The vandalism at Castlebay Lane Elementary School, 190120 Castlebay Lane, apparently occurred Tuesday night or early Wednesday morning, police said. School officials said the graffiti markings were erased before most students saw them.

“We take this problem very seriously,” Principal Natalie Messenger said. “I have the sense that it might have been older kids because it was relatively high up on the walls and all the words were spelled correctly.”

Messenger said teachers at the school, where the student enrollment is about one-half Anglo and one-third Asian American, will discuss the graffiti with students today.