UPDATE 3/5/22: Toronto Police are seeking a suspect based on security footage from Central Technical School from between the hours of 4 a.m. and 5 a.m. on March 2. The suspect is described as having a medium build and was wearing a dark jacket, grey pants, and light tan coloured work boots.
“Nearly identical” antisemitic graffiti was found outside three Toronto public high schools on the morning of March 2, the Toronto District School Board has reported.
The graffiti was found at Central Technical High School near Bathurst and Bloor streets; Malvern Collegiate Institute in Scarborough and Rosedale Heights School of the Arts, near Bloor Street and Bayview Avenue.
“In all cases, this hateful vandalism appears to have occurred overnight,” TDSB spokesperson Ryan Bird said in an email.
“We are working with Toronto Police to provide any assistance that we can as they continue to investigate these incidents which are harmful and completely unacceptable on or off school property.”
Police are investigating and the hate crimes unit “is engaged,” Toronto Police Chief James Ramer tweeted.
In a letter sent home to parents, Anne Chirakal, principal of Central Technical School said the exterior walls of the school had been “vandalized with antisemitic graffiti.” Police were contacted when the graffiti was discovered in the morning.
“At Central Technical School we take great pride in our school as a welcoming, safe and inclusive place, so this is not only very upsetting—particularly for those in the Jewish community—but a completely unacceptable incident,” Chirakal wrote.
The three reports of hateful graffiti are the latest antisemitic incidents for the public school board.
Last month, at three different schools, students gave a ‘Hitler salute’ to Jewish teachers or students.
The board has said it is committed to increasing Holocaust education. The group Carrying Testimony, which trains adult descendants of Holocaust survivors to develop presentations for schools, has already been in numerous TDSB schools and will be visiting schools where an incident has occurred, a board spokesperson said.
