Culprits Found

    Two East Hampton High School Students and one from Westhampton Beach High School admitted to trespassing on East Hampton High School property and defacing a picture of the boys varsity soccer team in the locker room.

    “The East Hampton Town police were instrumental in resolving this case,” Rich Burns, the East Hampton School District’s interim superintendent, said in a statement issued last Thursday.

    Mr. Burns described the graffiti, discovered on Nov. 7, as “offensive” and “racially charged.” It included swastikas drawn on the coaches’ shirt and genitalia drawn on many members of the soccer team.

    The incident and the school administration’s handling of it spawned a contentious debate at a school board meeting in mid-November.

    After it was discovered, members of the boys volleyball team, which practiced immediately after the county championship soccer team and therefore had access to the locker room, were questioned by school officials. That angered some parents, who took their concerns and frustrations to a school board meeting on Nov. 15.

    “I would like to express my personal regret to the members of the boys varsity volleyball team. I know many students and parents were deeply upset about the manner in which the students were questioned in this case,” Mr. Burns said in a statement last Thursday. He also expressed his compassion for the soccer team and the coaches “who were the victims of this disturbing incident.”

    The perpetrators’ names were not released, but none was a member of the volleyball team. All three have been suspended from school.