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A small Kansas town’s sense of safety was shattered after a defunct but beloved historic Catholic school was found vandalized last week.
KWCH, a Wichita-area affiliate of CBS, reported July 11 that broken statues and furniture, drawings of marijuana leaves, and hateful messages and images were found throughout the building of St. Ann’s Catholic School in Olmitz. The school is more than a century old, according to the Great Bend Tribune; KWCH reports that it closed in 1976 but has since been used for religious education and other parish activities.
The Barton County Sheriff’s Office said its investigation, which began July 10, is indicating that three people vandalized the school between June 27 and July 7. The case remains open, and the office asks anyone with information to contact Crime Stoppers.
“Deputies arrived and found the school had been broken into,” the sheriff’s office said in a July 11 statement. “Unknown persons entered the building causing extensive damage to the interior of the building and other property inside the building. The total cost of the damage is not known at this time.”
The office shared several pictures displaying some of the damage done to the property. One shows a red swastika on a chalkboard, above which hangs a school banner.
Graffiti has been marked on chalkboards throughout the school, according to KWCH. The outlet’s coverage featured videos of the damage, including a beheaded religious statue and chalkboards with messages about marijuana as well as swastikas.
“We are investigating this as a hate crime due to the antisemitic, the homophobic, the anti-religious graffiti,” Sheriff Brian Bellendir said in an interview with KWCH.
Olmitz is a small community, with a 2020 population of just 90 people, according to the United States Census Bureau. Some members of the community have suggested that the vandals were not residents of the town.
Katie Fitzsimmons, custodian for both the church and the school, said in an interview with KWCH, “They’ve come in from another town and picked this school to destroy — out of hate and violence and evil.”
CatholicVote has previously reported about vandalism of Catholic property, including another event in Kansas involving satanic messages, which President Donald Trump promised to investigate. There have been at least 511 attacks on Catholic Churches since May 2020, according to the CatholicVote violence tracker.
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