Vandalism and TP'ing
A mother sent this email to severan community leaders and we thought it worth sharing with you as TP’ing has escalated to new and messy levels. TP’ing is no longer simple toilet papering trees… the suspects are now damaging homes, which leads to expensive repair work. Many parents (me included) don’t realize that shaving cream causes damage to wood and paint. This is not one of those urban legends. This email has not been edited.
My daughters have gone, or currently go to one of your schools (Aldridge and Wilson previously, now Vines and PSHS [though this is not typically a senior high issue]).
I need your help in dealing with a recurring problem that not only I now face, but other parents experience. It starts in about 5th grade and goes through 9th grade. And while I would like to think that parents should handle this, the fact of the matter is they are not.
I would like yourhelp as leaders in the school to communicate the seriousness of the issue to your student body and parents.
Here is the problem:
It happened again. Our home was vandalized on Sunday morning, August 21. Our mailbox was damaged, our front door was defaced, and our porch and walkway were stained. What’s more some plants were broken and our beautiful oak trees and lawn were covered with wall-to-wall toilet paper.
Yes, we were “wrapped” - to the tune of $400 in damages. After being wrapped more than 15 times in five years and sustaining varying amounts of property damage, it’s beyond juvenile prank status. It’s vandalism.
What you as educators may not realize is that “wrapping” is no longer limited to toilet papering (TP’ing) the trees. The house itself is fair game, the ante has been upped, and the creativity knows no limits - chocolate syrup, Oreo cookies mashed into your door, bird seed, eggs, tomatoes, vegetable oil, wood shavings, tomato sauce, whipping cream, silly string, crepe paper (try getting THAT out of your trees) - and that’s not even the entire list. Our lawn has been “forked” - embedded with plastic forks and knives just high enough ruin a lawnmower at best, or impale your foot at the very worst. We’ve been the victim of popper firecrackers. And we’ve been smoke bombed, leaving colored stains on door mouldings.
Finally and worst, our property has been defaced with the most awful innocuous substance to ever hit wood or paint - shaving cream. The problem is the chemical content - alcohol and who knows what chemicals that can take the paint off of doors, stain brickwork and wood furniture, ruin the finish on brass door handles and locks, and chemically etch an aluminum mailbox. Hence the $400 in damage to our property.
Does this ruin your image of innocent fun? I certainly hope so. This “rite of passage” is undeniably out of control.
Law enforcement authorities have told us (yes, we called the police and have on bad occasions in the past) that wrapping is primarily perpetrated by 11-15 year-old young males - those cute little boys mostly in middle school who often want to express their love for (or annoyance at) a sweet young thing by defacing her parents’ property. And while female cheerleaders have been known to wrap the houses of football players before the first big game (or get back at the boys who first TP’ed them), the bottom line is this: More than 90% of this misdemeanor vandalism is performed by young teen boys, and the bad stuff is almost strictly a guy thing.
Of course, the very worst fact is that this havoc is often performed with the actual consent and money of the parents. (In fact, last year when we caught four boys wrapping our house during our 14-year old daughter’s birthday slumber party, the mother drove up in her new Tahoe and admitted she carted them over (and paid for the supplies!) to do the dirty deed. She thought it was OK to anonymously deface our property.)
How can we expect young teens to exhibit good judgment and respect for the property of others when their own parents condone and finance this destructive behavior - and pass it off as a harmless prank?
The answer is that we can’t. But I CAN ask you ask educators, somewhere during the busy day, somewhere in all the publications you write, sometime during all those PTA and Band Booster meetings, to talk strongly AGAINST this frustrating form of vandalism that seems to know no bounds.
I am NOT the only parent who has been the victim of this escalating behavior. But I AM going to lead this charge. I am now appealing to my school district educators, board members, and PTA representatives to help get the word out - THIS IS NOT CUTE. IT IS VANDALISM.
Thank you for your consideration and what I hope is a concerted effort to change the actions and viewpoints of your student body.