Scat school followup

I went past North Strathfield public school again yesterday, and the "scat" graffiti is still up on two demountables.


My email to the school pointing this out to them has gone unanswered. There were teachers at the school yesterday, getting ready for the new term. I went into the school and had a look for the office - I wanted to be sure that they knew about it, and had done something about it.

The signage in the school is so hopeless, I was unable to find the office, so I left without seeing anyone about it. I'll try to call them today to follow up.


It appears that they aren't particularly keen on having it removed before their students turn up today - and you have to ask yourself what sort of message that sends to impressionable young minds.


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A partial defence for the school is that they have to jump though a lot of hoops to get graffiti removed. A teacher just can't go outside with a bucket of paint and paint over it. Processes have to be followed.


To start with, the Principal has to make a Police report, and obtain an Event Number.


They take the Event Number and submit an insurance claim.


With the claim submitted, they call the Spotless hotline and lodge a request to have the graffiti removed.


Spotless then send out a man in a van to clean it up.


I doubt that even the most efficient Principal in the state could get that done in 24 hours, which is the recommended timeframe for removing graffiti.


If common sense was applied, a staff member would take photos with a digital camera and then paint straight over it. A Police report could then be filed using the photos. With damage like this, an insurance claim would not be required - about a dollar's worth of paint would fix it. The problem could be removed in less than half an hour.


If the Principal couldn't find a staff member willing to clean up their own school, the job could be passed to Council, who would give this a high priority and remove it within 24 hours (our council at least sees the sense in rapid removal, and treats sensitive sites like this as quickly as possible). At present, Council can't touch the site - the Education Department won't give permission for Council to clean it's property. Some sort of turf war is being waged in the bureaucracy I suspect.


If my kids were at this school, I'd happily paint over it as a member of the P&C.


But common sense is not allowed to prevail. Bureaucracy and process are the order of the day, and I can sometimes understand why busy people just can't be bothered, and why some things take forever to get actioned.

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I just rang the school, and the person who answered the phone had no idea that the school had graffiti on it. They said they'd ask the "GA" (whoever that is) whether anything had been done about it.

Hopefully, the ball is now rolling.