SACRAMENTO, Calif. — A Roseville center for children with Down syndrome had posters on its windows vandalized with hate speech over the weekend, just days after its grand opening, officials with the nonprofit said.
GiGi's Playhouse, a national nonprofit, opened its Sacramento-area achievement center May 16 at a shopping center along Douglas Boulevard just east of Interstate 80.
Less than a week later on Friday evening, one or more vandals defaced large posters on the center's storefront and side windows — which contain photos of local children with Down syndrome — with offensive and hateful language written in black marker, the nonprofit said.
"It destroyed those photos. It was basically hate-filled, slanderous speech," April Davila, board vice president of the local center, told The Sacramento Bee on Monday morning.
Davila said the posters were hanging on the outside rather than inside due to tint on the windows.
"This is not the first experience with hate speech toward the Down syndrome community," GiGi's Playhouse Sacramento wrote in a news release. "People with Down syndrome face lifelong discrimination and are often targeted for the disability that is written on their face. This act of hate speech was, quite literally, written on the images of local Sacramento-area children."
Nancy Gianni, founder and CEO of the national nonprofit, in a Facebook post called the incident "a hate crime" and said GiGi's Playhouse would "prosecute to the fullest extent of the law."
Davila said the Roseville Police Department is investigating the vandalism.
"We're investigating as a hate crime," department spokesman Rob Baquera confirmed to The Bee.
