BALTIMORE _ Four Glenelg High School students have been charged with hate crimes after swastikas and racial epithets, including one that police said targeted the central Howard County school's African-American principal, were found painted on campus sidewalks, outside walls and parking lot at dawn.
Howard County Police said they used video from surveillance cameras to help identify the 18-year-olds, who are facing multiple counts of destruction of property based on bias.
Three of the students, Seth Taylor, of Ellicott City, Tyler Curtiss, of Brookeville and Joshua Shaffer, of Mount Airy, were taken into custody at the school, police said. Matthew Lipp, of Woodbine, was picked up by police at his home.
All four were being booked at the county detention center on the misdemeanor charges at mid-afternoon, police said. Information about their attorneys was not available.
The arrests were announced less than three hours after county, school and community leaders held a news conference to denounce the incident, which police have labeled a hate crime.
"Today's incident is extremely harsh in terms of what I've witness based on the pictures that I have seen. We will not tolerate this in Howard County," school Superintendent Michael J. Martirano said at the news conference in Ellicott City, surrounded by more than a dozen school, county and community leaders.
"We work hard every day to make sure our children are safe and protected," Martirano said. "No child, no staff member, within our inclusive community should ever feel any form of threat or harassment or any form of hate."
Much of the graffiti, which Martirano said was found by building service staff early Thursday morning, was directed at Glenelg Principal David Burton, who is African-American. Martirano said he communicated with Burton earlier Thursday via email and planned to go to Glenelg on Thursday afternoon to meet with staff.
Burton was asked to be at the news conference, Martirano said, but chose to stay with students.
The principal held an assembly with students Thursday morning about the incident. Burton, who is in his second year as principal of the 1,173-student school, received a standing ovation, Martirano said.
Officials haven't estimated the cost to clean up and repair the damage. The markings were removed in the morning by maintenance workers, a school spokesman said.
Martirano sent a note to all school system staff Thursday morning alerting them of the incident, and said he wants to see the incident used as a "teachable moment" with students.
The incident is the first hate crime in a Howard County school this year, authorities said. Susan Grossman, a rabbi at Beth Shalom Congregation in Columbia who stood with Martirano at the news conference, said it's the latest example of growing local anti-Semitism.
Grossman said she's heard of an increased amount of anti-Semitic-based bullying among students in the county and called for a mandatory anti-bias curriculum, including lessons about the Holocaust.
Martirano emphasized the need for parents to monitor their children's social media use and be active in discussing diversity issues.
Students stood outside the school in their red graduation caps and gowns before a year-end awards ceremony, as custodians wiped down the stop sign and used a water tank from the Howard County Sheriff's Office to clean the pavement.
"I ask all of Howard County today to join me in an effort to help our community heal," Martirano said. "Be assured that individuals responsible for these acts will be held accountable."
Howard County Executive Allan H. Kittleman, whose four children attended Glenelg and whose daughter is a teacher at the school, said he was heartbroken by "this display of cruelty and hatred" in his own backyard.
"On what should be a joyous day, when parents and students assemble to celebrate the senior class for its many accomplishments, they were instead confronted with an appalling display of bigotry defacing their school," the county executive said in a statement.
Kittleman pledged that the county would speak and act against the hate crime "in the strongest terms possible" and use its OneHoward initiative to plan activities to promote respect. He acknowledged that the vandalism was "extremely unsettling" to Howard County residents.
"But we cannot let those who promote hate destroy our important year-end traditions and must remind ourselves that this type of intolerant behavior is the work of a small number of hateful individuals," he said. "They do not represent our shared beliefs as a community. They do not represent our shared values in Howard County. We will not tolerate it and will stand together in condemning this behavior."
