PITTSBURG, Kan. — On Monday, crews at USD 250 worked to clean up vandalism after graffiti and trash were found over the weekend at the Pittsburg High School softball fields.
Just before noon on Saturday, PHS softball coach Chanc Gomez posted on Facebook that the field had been trashed. Photos showed the field strewn with empty Gatorade bottles, plastic cups, softballs, and discarded food.
On Sunday morning, Gomez posted that vandals returned to the field, spray-painting the dugout, concession stand, as well as league/state recognized athlete signage.
According to USD 250 Chief Operations Officer Tom Stegman, the district is working alongside the Pittsburg Police Department to investigate who committed the crimes both Saturday and Sunday.
“I was contacted Saturday morning when I was giving tours to the Class of 1980 at the high school then to the middle school of the situation by our softball coach,” said Stegman. “So I went out there and assessed the situation. We are addressing that accordingly and looking through surveillance video, those type of things, to see if we can identify individuals and, of course, police were notified.
“When we came back on early Sunday morning, about 6 (a.m.), I usually go out and check the grounds and stuff, noticed the spray-paint as well. We are dealing with that accordingly … From my standpoint, it’s really frustrating. Especially since we just had that entire complex repainted, preparing it for the softball season this year and had that repainted and for somebody to go out and do that is very frustrating, especially when we try to provide a quality facility for our students but also for our staff and our community.”
On Monday evening, the Pittsburg Police Department issued a release regarding a burglary and criminal damage incident at Pittsburg High School.
According to the report, officers were dispatched to the school early Sunday morning regarding the damage to the softball field and concession stand areas. Later that evening, at around 9:44 p.m., officers were again dispatched to the high school in response to a burglary alarm, where the found two juvenile males inside the building.
Both juveniles, whose identities were not released, were arrested on charges of burglary, theft, and interference with law enforcement. Both were eventually released to a guardian. The Pittsburg Police Department noted that it is unknown whether the vandalism and burglary incidents are connected.
While the investigation by the Pittsburg Police Department is ongoing, USD 250 reflected on the incident, which has caused a strain on both employees and the budget.
“We have to pull other individuals from other jobs that they are working to try and take care of removing obscene graffiti,(which has a ripple effect.)” Stegman said. “It takes them off of worksites where we had other projects,” said Stegman. “It causes a delay and that’s also very disheartening … The unfortunate part is when we already have that completed, then you have to turn around and do that again.
“Right now, we are paying for labor, graffiti chemicals, we’ll probably have to go back and repaint. Any time that occurs, and those things are unexpected, it takes away from other programs whether that’s capital outlay, projects that I have going on. But ultimately, it’s still part of the district budget and when certain things like this occur, we are unable to maybe take care of other needs because someone disrespected or made a foolish choice.”
The paint applied to the dugout was a higher quality paint that can withstand the wild weather of southeast Kansas, according to Stegman. With the damage, the school may face repainting the dugout entirely.
“For us, if we have to go back and put a different type of primer over something that was vandalized, and then for us to have to go to repaint, re-stencil, replace the Dragons back up on it, repaint softballs,” he said.
One of the areas vandalized was the large softballs along the side of the field that display a past players' name, highlighting their accomplishments as Purple Dragons such as all-state. Those will need to be cleaned or fully replaced.
“Those are individuals that we want to commend and thank for a job well done and unfortunately, it doesn’t just affect us; it affects those individuals, too,” said Stegman. “Someone has defaced their hard work and their skillset and the accomplishments, accolades that they may have had.”
While the situation has negatively impacted the softball field and the wider community, many people have offered to lend a helping hand since finding out.
“A lot of people have reached out to us,” said Stegman. “Community members, businesses, things like that have reached out to not only myself but also to Coach Gomez, asking ‘Is there any way we can help?’ To those people, we want to say ‘thank you’ because they understand it, they take pride in our facilities as well and those are individuals who also get hurt when individuals do this … Truthfully, it’s not my property, and it’s not the school’s property, it’s all of ours. It’s the community and the district.”
Persons with information regarding the incident are encouraged to contact the Pittsburg Police Department at 620-231-1700.
This reporting is made possible, in part, by the Support Local Journalism Project Fund. Learn more at: southeastkansas.org/Localnews.
