Orem High School Softball Field Vandalized Overnight With Racist, Homophobic Graffiti
May 30, 2020, 4:25 PM | Updated: Jun 3, 2020, 11:49 am
Photo courtesy of @Lsuamataia on Twitter.
SALT LAKE CITY, Utah – The Orem High School softball field was vandalized overnight with apparent racist and homophobic graffiti.
The high school sports facility was tagged between May 29-3o, according to Leroy Suamataia who discovered the vandalism on Saturday morning.
“As we deal with [this] type of BS in our backyard. I hope everyone retweets this and find these idiots! Whoever did this, needs to be “brave” and show your coward face! #TooMuchHateInThisWorld,” Suamataia posted along with photos of the graffiti.
The vandalism covered multiple places around the softball field including the Tigers’ dugout and the backstop behind home plate.
Photos courtesy of @Lsuamataia on Twitter
An Orem Police Department spokesperson told sports.ksl.com that the department is currently reviewing “grainy video” which might make it hard to identify the suspects who tagged the Orem High School facility.
Former BYU football players Robertson Daniel and Ross Apo, who have both trained high school athletes in the state of Utah, posted about the damage at Orem High.
“To believe I spend countless amount of hours of my time training kids at Orem. I show up and had to see that,” Daniel tweeted. “Smh but let’s be honest here, I’m not surprised.”
“Crazy bro…Smh.” Apo responded to Daniel.
The former BYU wideout told sports.ksl.com how he felt after seeing photos emerge of the vandalism in Orem.
“Honestly, really really disgusted. The racial slurs & homophobic pictures are horrible,” Apo said. “The timing is horrible. The whole thing brings disappointment and anger to me.”
“This is unacceptable. Orem is better than this,” KSL Sports anchor Sam Farnsworth tweeted about the incident. “I hope those responsible pay the consequences of their actions.”
Orem Police confirmed that the graffiti had been cleaned up by the Alpine School District as of Saturday afternoon.
Salt Lake City Protests
The vandalism was discovered at the same time that thousands of protesters gathered 40 miles north of Orem High School at the Utah State Capitol Building in Salt Lake City.
The vandalism was discovered at the same time that thousands of protesters gathered 40 miles north of Orem High School at the Utah State Capitol Building in Salt Lake City.
