YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan — No suspects have been identified in the vandalism of Yokota High School and more than a dozen Yokota school buses, but investigators are tracking several leads, base and school officials said Thursday.
"Military authorities are investigating the incident, and we are cooperating fully during the process," Chip Steitz, a Department of Defense Dependents Schools-Pacific spokesman on Okinawa, said in an e-mail to Stars and Stripes.
Officials said it remains unclear how many people took part or whether students were even involved in the incident, which occurred between 4:30 p.m. Tuesday and 6:30 a.m. Wednesday.
At least three buildings at the school and the marquee out front were spray-painted in red with what appeared to be the "A" anarchy symbol. A derogatory phrase was spray-painted on the main office.
Vandals had chained shut entrance doors to buildings 4118 and 4157, Principal Richard J. Schlueter wrote in an e-mail to Yokota High School parents and sponsors Wednesday.
According to several students, the doors had been chained from the inside.
Steitz said the "anarchy" symbol showed up on 17 DODDS buses parked overnight inside a fenced area near the campus. No spray-painting was found inside the school, he added.
"Nobody has been detained at this point and we have no confessions, but continue to pursue a number of leads provided to us by concerned members of Yokota," said Lt. Col. Anthony Maisonet, the Yokota security forces chief.
Price tags were left on the locks and chains on the entrance doors, which showed the culprits spent 3,000 yen off base, according to an 11th-grade boy. "So it cost a little money to do this," he said.
Two eighth-grade boys said they heard the vandals left fingerprints in a bathroom.
"Most people think a senior did it," one of them said, "like a last stand before they leave."
Cleanup costs were expected to be minimal, Steitz said, adding that parents have volunteered to help, and the 374th Civil Engineer Squadron provided equipment and labor to clean up the graffiti.
Senior Master Sgt. Alexander Thomson, an infrastructure section chief with the squadron, said he and three other airmen removed about 80 percent of the paint Thursday.
"It was a concern of mine and a few of my cohorts to try and remove the paint so that our children wouldn’t have to look at the unsightly messages," he said, adding that Master Sgt. Gary Souder, Staff Sgt. Noah Villanueva and Airman Jordan Ward also took part in the cleanup. "It was a simple task that only took about an hour."
Anyone with information is asked to call the 374th Security Forces investigation section at DSN 225-7025.
