Police: Swastikas Carved on to Rye School District Vehicles

OUTSIDE NEW YORK CITY -- Vandals attacked a local high school Monday night, leaving swastikas carved into school-owned vehicles, according to a police report. The vandals also broke several windows and a door. 

There are no witnesses or suspects as of Wednesday evening, according to Rye city police Commissioner William Connors. Police responded to the incident around 7 a.m. Tuesday morning, when a Rye High School employee reported the damage.  The damage included:

• Broken glass at the side entrance of the auxiliary gym
• Two small windows in the music room smashed by  a stone
• All the windows to the classroom trailers on the Milton Road side of the school were smashed with a large stone
• Three school-owned vehicles parked on the other side of the building were vandalized
• Swastikas were drawn on the windshields of the vehicles and one vehicle’s windshield was smashed

Detectives Jake Chittenden and John Wood were notified and responded to the scene. The school employee who called the police told officers that on Sunday, someone had removed the Rye High School flag from the school’s flagpole and replaced it with a Harrison High School flag.

On Saturday, Harrison police received a report that a Harrison flag had been removed from a resident’s property and was later “potentially” found inside of Rye High School, according to Harrison Police Chief Anthony Marraccini.

There is no evidence that Tuesday morning’s vandalism was tied to a Rye/Harrison rivalry, however, police noted the rivalry in their report.

Rye City School District posted this announcement on its website on Wednesday, Jan. 23:

Areas of the Rye High School campus were vandalized over the weekend. The portable classroom windows were broken and anti-Semitic symbols were carved into the District trucks. The District contacted the Rye Police immediately upon discovering that this had occurred and the matter is being investigated. The District is appalled at this disturbing act, which is certainly NOT acceptable in or reflective of the Rye community.