Rockford schools provide best lesson on fighting problem

Can’t remember? That’s because the Rockford School District has a policy that should be considered best practice. When the graffiti goes up, first priority is getting it down.

If the school janitors can’t handle the job, district facilities manager Todd Schmidt sends his grounds crew to either paint over the scrawling or sandblast it. And he doesn’t place the work order on his desk, behind the other requests for help.

He puts it at the top of the list.

Contrast that to City Hall, where spokesman John Strandin says the graffiti-removal team is about a month behind in responding to calls.

THE JOB IS NEITHER cheap nor easy, we know that. Rockford taxpayers spend about $5,000 a year on materials to remove graffiti and more than $60,000 on labor costs, the Public Works Department says. The School District did not have comparable figures.

But removing graffiti surely is an expense the district cannot easily afford. It’s still $11.5 million in debt after cutting $16.5 million.

If the financially strapped School District can get rid of graffiti, right away, then certainly the city can.

What do the schools know that the city doesn’t? They know graffiti has a dramatic effect on school climate. Graffiti is a reminder that the gangs want supremacy, not only on the streets but in the minds of students. Gangs want their symbols to be as important as pi and square root. They want their rules to replace the principal’s word.

When the schools erase graffiti, they tell the gangs: Not in our building, you don’t. Here, we’re boss.

Another way of looking at the graffiti problem is the broken windows theory, first penned by urban sociologists and popularized by former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani. When one window is broken in a neighborhood, criminals are more likely to break others. Conversely, when broken windows are fixed quickly, it tells the vandals that their “handiwork” won’t be tolerated. Giuliani dramatically reduced crime in New York through aggressive policing and beautification.

ROCKFORD ALD. JOHN BECK wants to take the graffiti fight a step further. Beck has proposed an ordinance to restrict the sale of spray paint to minors. That’s not a good solution. We agree with Brian Daly, president of Great Ace Hardware in Chicago, where customers must prove their intent for spray paint. Daly says minors will find a way to buy the paint anyway.

You only have to be 16 to drive a car and drive to Belvidere or Cherry Valley or Winnebago to buy a can there.

Instead of passing a spray-paint law, Rockford officials should take a road trip to 201 S. Madison St., the School District offices. Talk to the grounds crew. They know how to win the battle against graffiti. They just remove it.