Staff report
HIGHTSTOWN — Less than two weeks after opening for the year, Hightstown High School became the second borough school to be struck this month by anti-Semitic and anti-American graffiti, with marks including a swastika.
Police said Thursday afternoon that staff at the school officially reported Sept. 16 three incidents of graffiti inside the school on Leshin Lane.
The words “Al Qaeda Lives” were found Sept. 11 in the gymnasium while “KKK,” “White Power” and a swastika, all written with a marker, were found that same day in the hallway and stairwell closest to the school’s main office, according to police. A school district official told borough Police Chief James Eufemia about the incidents on Sept. 12
Other graffiti, written with a substance similar to shoe polish, was found Sept. 15 in the boys’ bathroom, police said, but was not biased in nature.
Police said they have no suspects in any of the incidents.
About two weeks ago, just days before the Sept. 4 start of the school year, the Walter C. Black Elementary School was the target of anti-Semitic and anti-American graffiti, including three swastikas on the back of the building along with the words “U.S. Sucks.”
As a result of that incident, School Superintendent Ron Bolandi recommended to the school board that the district buy additional security cameras. While Hightstown High, the Kreps middle school and Drew elementary school have security cameras, he said, Black does not.
The latest school incidents mark the sixth report of hateful graffiti found this year in the area, and occurred about eight months after Hightstown, East Windsor and Roosevelt were branded during one night with anti-Semitic graffiti and anti-American graffiti.
In January, a 1-square-foot swastika was found on the newly erected fountain at The Point, where Main, South Main and Mercer streets meet in the borough. Another swastika was found on Etra Road near Milford Road in East Windsor. And hateful graffiti was found on a memorial statue of Franklin D. Roosevelt, two street signs and the post office in Roosevelt.
In February, three 18-year-old college students from the township were charged with bias intimidation and bias-based criminal mischief in relation to the January acts.
More instances of graffiti were found over two weeks in May, when police reported anti-Semitic and anti-American markings on concrete barriers on Route 133 in East Windsor. In Hightstown, police reported in the same month that a building was vandalized with anti-Jewish and anti-black graffiti, including swastikas.

