Volunteers Paint Over Vandalism

“Shy Boy” got rubbed out on a Fullerton street Sunday, not by a rival gang member but by college students armed with paint rollers.

Although the moniker suggests bashfulness, Shy Boy was not timid about spray-painting his street name on several east Fullerton walls and eucalyptus trees, much to the disappointment of the Tau Kappa Epsilon fraternity at Cal State Fullerton.

Twenty fraternity members volunteered an hour of their time Sunday to paint over graffiti-marred walls and trees in a neighborhood near Valencia Drive and Lemon Street.

“We’re trying to make a difference in our community,” fraternity President Edgar Khalatian said.

Khalatian led his fraternity into the mostly Latino neighborhood, drawing stares from residents, including some who wondered aloud why a group of outsiders was painting their neighborhood.

“Are they on probation or something, and they have to do community service?” asked one resident who did not want to be identified.

Lou Regla, a 20-year-old political science major, said he is sure “a majority of people in the neighborhood are happy this is going on.”

But just as Regla and the others were feeling good about what they were doing, Ray Solis pulled up in a van.

Solis, who lives in the neighborhood and said he paints over graffiti for the city, growled at the students for not matching the original paint on the walls. The students used three colors.

“How come you’re not painting it the way it’s supposed to be, tan or Navajo?” Solis asked. “Now you’ve got three colors, pink, gray and cement, on that wall. I’m going to have to come back tomorrow and paint over these kids’ work. What’s the use in doing this if you’re not going to use the same color used on the fence?”

As for Shy Boy, Solis said: “I don’t know who he is, but I hear he’s from Anaheim.

“Why doesn’t he mess up his own neighborhood instead of coming into Fullerton to do this stuff?”