NORTHWEST GLENDALE — Glendale Police say the amount of graffiti on some local high school campuses has steadily increased in recent years, but some students disagree, saying that taggers prefer leaving their painted marks off campus.

A week ago, vandals hit Hoover High School several times with graffiti in and around stairwells and hallways.

Several students have since been accused of painting the graffiti during school hours, and were cited by police for vandalism.

The students have been suspended and will have to appear in court. School administrators are asking their parents to reimburse the school for damages.

Many of the tags featured the same three letters, which investigators believe is the vandals' signature and may also refer to smoking strong marijuana.

Police believe the letters, "JCK," stand for "Just Causing Kaos," and also think the tag might be referring to the act of smoking chronic, a highly potent type of marijuana.

In April, vandals tagged the school frequently, Co-principal Kevin Welsh said.

"It's been a good year and a half since we've had this come up as a real issue," Welsh said Thursday. "Aside from activity back in April and most recently last week, there is no large-scale graffiti problem here. It's just sporadic, isolated incidents. With the most recent problem, our [School Resource Officers] were able to find several of the kids who did it, and it has not happened again."

Hoover senior Miguel Lauchengco doesn't consider tagging on campus to be a problem at all.

"It's not that big of a deal anymore," said Miguel, 17. "The school cleans it up right away anyway. There's not that many [taggers] here. Tagging is like a fad. But there's other places to go to paint graffiti that are better than school, like trucks and trains, under bridges or on gang territory. I know people that do it."

Tagging is a "recurring problem" at Hoover, and also happens frequently at Glendale High School, according to police reports. Glendale High Co-principal LeRoy Sherman was not available for comment.

But tagging crews — groups of people who paint graffiti — on the east side of town are more active, said Stewart Brackin, a Glendale Police Department gang detail investigator.

Police issued a 20-location search warrant at the end of March and beginning of April that resulted in about 10 arrests of alleged taggers, Brackin said. Complaints from community residents and more reported tagging incidents — primarily on the east side of town — prompted police to issue the warrants.

"There has been a steady increase in tagging activity for the past year or two," Brackin said. "But the problem is that even when you crack down on tagging, sometimes the attention you give them actually bolsters their efforts.

"These kids want attention. … They are not getting that at home or from other viable sources, so they turn to these crews."