Police, Schools Investigating Vandalism at Mentor High Football Field, Lake Catholic

Police and school officials are looking for the vandals who defaced both of the high schools in Mentor in the last few days.

Somebody spray-painted on the turf of Jerome T. Osborne Stadium at late Friday night.

Mentor Schools spokeswoman Kristen Kirby did not specifically say what was written, only that the message was "inappropriate" and "disappointing."

The school had to call special turf cleaners who removed the paint Monday. The cleanup will cost the school district about $1,400, Kirby said.

Then between Monday evening and Tuesday morning, someone wrote on the large block letters that spell "LAKE" in front of , as well as the school's dugout.

Lake Catholic President Sal Miroglotta described the vandal's message as "vulgar," but did not elaborate.

If the vandal or vandals behind the messages are caught, they might face suspension or expulsion from their respective school. Also, they might face criminal charges and will have to repay the money it took to clean their mess.

Mentor Police Sgt. Michael Majernik said the message at Mentor High School implicated Lake Catholic students, and the spray-painted words at Lake Catholic implied it was done by Mentor High kids.

However, Majernik added, this could be a red herring.

"You don't know if it's someone trying to set someone up," Majernik said. "This could be one person or a group of people trying to start a school feud."

Majernik said both vandalism cases are being investigated.

"We want to nip this in the bud right away," he said.

Kirby said that Mentor Schools intended to press charges against anyone who is caught vandalizing the district's property.

In what might be a coincidence, several Lake Catholic students had their homes vandalized during the weekend.

Lake Catholic student Sean Fee was one of the people whose house was hit during the recent spree. Fee said that a total of nine houses were vandalized, and the vandals left a mark letting the victim know they were "one of nine" or "two of nine" and so on.

Only seven of the nine victims have been identified, Fee said. Of the seven known targets, all of them are homes of Lake Catholic students.

The houses were covered in toilet paper, their yards perforated with forks and messages were occasionally spray-painted on the walls, Fee said.

However, the spray-painted messages seem to be less graphic than those left at the schools.

"They only did a few things that were questionable or on the raunchier side," Fee said.

Both Lake Catholic and Mentor High have cleaned up the vandal's (or vandals') work.

Miroglotta noted that it was not unusual for a school to be vandalized. A few years ago, his school's "LAKE" block letters were painted red.

"We're always disappointed when this kind of thing happens," he said. "But we need to show them that this is not the kind of thing that adults do."