Police are investigating a case of hateful graffiti around a local school. One of the messages was spray-painted on the side of an Iroquois School District bus. 

“Harborcreek (expletive). We hate (expletive)s. Kill them!” it said.

One of the words was a homophobic slur. 

Lawrence Park police said it happened Friday night. It was reported early Saturday morning. 

They used security cameras to figure out who did it. 

“Also, the current [school resource officers] and another former SRO, along with Iroquois staff,” said Patrolman Andrew Lapping of the Lawrence Park Police Department. 

The bus was not the only spot on the district property that was targeted. Racial and anti-Semitic slurs were found around the baseball field, not far from the bus. Sexual illustrations were on the front doors of Iroquois Junior-Senior High School.

Three juveniles will be charged through the District Attorney’s office. 

Police won’t say what those charges will be. But they said, two of those charged are students in the Iroquois School District.

“It is my hope that the DA will allow the Lawrence Park police to press hate crime charges,” said Shane Murray, superintendent of the Iroquois School District.

He said they cleaned the vandalism as soon as they found out about it.

“It was all hands on deck to make sure that nobody was offended and had to see what kind of damage was done to our best resource in our community,” he said. 

The district doesn’t tolerate this behavior, he said. Police don’t either. They have talked to those involved.

“I think they understood the seriousness of it. Whether they are remorseful or not, at this time,” I don’t know,” Pat. Lapping said.