Estimated read time: 2-3 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Team CoverageSalt Lake City police are looking for people who vandalized the seminary building at Highland High School over the weekend. The building, on 2166 S. 1700 East, was covered with graffiti illustrating anti-LDS messages.
Most of the graffiti has been cleaned up, but the damage is more of a minor concern compared to the intent behind the hateful messages.
Highland High School student Devin Endo said, "I think it's just wrong. It's an annoyance to people. They have to clean it off."
But over the weekend, those who passed by the place of religious education may have had trouble ignoring graffiti that read, "We've come to dismantle the Mormon empire," and "You are no longer safe."
"We're already made fun of all the time for our standards and beliefs, and to go to the seminary building--it's not even a church, it's our building--and to go write on there, I think it's just ridiculous," said Highland High senior Michelle Hunt.
Students who attend the seminary were outraged, but frustration over the crime goes beyond people of the LDS faith. "It's not just that it's hatred towards a particular religion. It affects everybody and all faiths suffer, I think, when one faith is attacked," explained Elaine Emmi, chair of the Salt Lake Interfaith Roundtable.
She says these types of crimes are uncommon in the area, and the graffiti may be the result of a bad prank. "They did something that was really stupid, and that it does hurt other people, but I'd rather draw those people in and include them in a dialogue than to separate them out and say you're awful people," she said.
But if police find those responsible, the only dialogue will be with a judge. Salt Lake City Detective Jared Wihongi said because of the nature of the comments, police are looking at it as a serious offense. He said, "We're hoping it is a prank type of an incident, but we're definitely taking this serious."
Charges for this crime could range from felony criminal mischief to making terroristic threats. Police are still looking for the people who did this. If you have any information, call Salt Lake City police at 799-3000.
