It was an upsetting weekend for parents with kids at a Winnipeg elementary school.
Vandals spray painted two outdoor walls with vulgar and offensive messages, which include swear words and swastikas.
Friday night, vandals covered two walls by the playground at Maple Leaf School in North Kildonan.
Mother Mary-Lynn Berti's six-year-old son Avery is a grade one student at the school.
"It's just really heartbreaking that this has happened," said Berti. "I don't really want my son knowing anything about it … because how do you find words to explain to a six-year-old why they did that to their playground. It's very upsetting."
In an email to CTV News, the River East Transcona School Division said the vandalism was removed Sunday.
“This kind of news is very upsetting to hear. What these vandals have done is very offensive to everyone – the division and the community at large. There is no excuse for behaviour like this,” said division superintendent Kelly Barkman.
Maple Leaf is not the only North Kildonan school that's become a vandal's canvas this year.
North Kildonan Community Watch patrols the neighbourhood in the evenings. It said Calvin Christian School and Sun Valley School were also targetted in June, but not to the same extent.
The group said despite the upsetting images at Maple Leaf School, it doesn't believe the tags were racially-motivated.
"Some of it doesn't make sense. Some of it is immature, yes. Some of it is offensive, but we also feel it's some stupid random act of graffiti," said Voyer.
The clean-up is a relief to the neighbourhood patrol and parents.
"I don't really know what kind of point the people who did this were trying to make, but clearly they had no respect for the fact that it was very small children that were going to be seeing these images."
Winnipeg police said Sunday the graffiti hasn’t been reported to them, but a suspect could face charges of vandalism or mischief for spray painting.
Stopping vandalism
The Jewish Federation of Winnipeg said the spray painted messages and symbols were disappointing and discouraging.
“We are not aware any significant anti-Semitic incidents in the area,” said president Adam Levene in a phone call with CTV News.
Levene said education and prevention was the key to stopping vandalism.
North Kildonan Community Watch said it would like to see more schools get together and paint murals as a deterrent, and install better lighting around school property.
