When students at Bayview High School arrived at school Monday morning, they received bad news. The Bayview Corner — where the Bayview Cash Store and Bayview Farm and Garden are located — had been the target of a vandal armed with cans of red spray paint.

Debbie Torget, the administrative manager for Goosefoot Community Fund in Bayview and a member of the Bayview High School advisory board, said she was one of the first people to see the graffiti.

“The graffiti was beyond disgusting and tacky,” said Torget. “It was a very jarring thing to show up to on a Monday morning.

Torget said it wasn’t long before she and co-worker Linda Moore saw 11 teenagers from Bayview High School marching up the driveway to their office. She said the students felt the vandalism was disgraceful, and took it personally that someone had vandalized the neighborhood their school is in.

“They were righteously pissed that someone did that to their neighborhood,” said Torget. “This is not how you communicate with other people.”

Some time between Saturday night and Sunday morning, Torget said the Bayview Market pavilion, the back of Bayview Hall, picnic tables, benches and even the door of Bayview High School were spray painted with red paint. Defamatory statements about a particular Bayview High School student, swastikas and Nazi references led the students to believe they knew who committed the act vandalism. The told Torget they wanted to clean the mess.

“It was not a Bayview High School student,” said Torget of the suspect.

Torget said the Bayview students spent almost three hours cleaning the paint off the buildings, and sanding the paint with an electric sander off of the benches and picnic tables.

The teenagers who attend Bayview High School are a special group of unique and colorful kids, according to Torget, and an important component to the Bayview corner.

“It was very cool,” said Torget about the cleanup effort. “They’re a part of our neighborhood. It’s all about diversity out here.”

According to Jan Smith, spokeswoman for the Island County Sheriff’s Office, a case report has been established for the incident, and the department is developing information on the vandalism that occurred. Investigation on the case and suspect is still pending, according to Smith.

Anyone with information pertaining to the incident or who witnessed any suspicious activity around the Bayview area Saturday night or early Sunday morning is asked to call the sheriff’s department at 321-4400.