Halloween’s Scary Stats
Halloween is one of the highest-risk nights for school vandalism. Districts can reduce damage by layering physical security, student engagement, and community partnerships year-round.
Ghoulish costumes may not spook school superintendents, but vandalism certainly can. Compared to any other day of the year, Halloween brings:
- 68% more vandalism insurance claims
- 8% more theft claims
- 5% more mysterious-disappearance claims, often for stolen, misplaced, or lost items
Halloween is also one of the top three holidays for vehicle theft.
Schools are frequent targets for these types of vandalism. On Halloween night in 2021, a California high school suffered extensive damage after three groups vandalized the campus. In addition to smashing a student’s award-winning 529-pound pumpkin, the criminals egged nearly every building on campus. They also spray-painted racist and homophobic slurs on walls and windows and graffitied a teacher’s home.
There are numerous strategies you can implement to deter vandalism, on Halloween and throughout the school year. Let’s look at four key areas to focus your efforts.
1. Strengthen Facilities and Surveillance
There are a number of strategies you can take on campus to make it less attractive and less accessible to potential vandals.
Lock it down.
Vandals like an easy target. Secure all gates, doors, and access points during “off” hours to help prevent damage to your campus. Even if this is already a written policy, consider adding a daily lock check to staff procedures.
Light it up.
Install bright, vandal-resistant lighting indoors and out, especially near access points, signage, and blank walls. This makes it easier for patrol cars, security cameras, and even passersby to spot any potential vandals before they cause trouble. Where appropriate, consider motion-activated lights to save energy while maintaining visibility.
Maintain visibility.
Use video surveillance at key entry points and areas where prior incidents have occurred. Make sure the cameras are out of reach so that vandals can’t tamper with them. If your budget is tight, deploy a mix of live cameras in your most vulnerable locations and “dummy” cameras elsewhere to increase deterrence.
Design around vandalism.
Keep common vandalism targets, like signage, art, and fixtures in well-lit, visible locations but out of reach. You can also strategically place and install outdoor furniture to deter vandalism, rather than enable it. For instance, outdoor furniture should be bolted down so that it cannot be moved and used to gain access to light fixtures, surveillance cameras, windows, balconies, etc.
Landscape intentionally.
Try to landscape strategically to deter vandalism. You can make signs, blank walls, windows, and balconies inaccessible by installing sharp or thorny plants near them. Position and prune easily climbable trees so they cannot be used as ladders. You might even consider placing a “Beware of poison ivy” sign in garden beds; it’s often enough to deter people from entering an area.
It’s also important to make sure shrubs, trees, and bushes don’t block light sources or create unintentional blind spots from the security cameras.
Reinforce vulnerable materials.
Even for commonly targeted surfaces and fixtures, you can prevent and mitigate some of the worst vandalism damage. Unbreakable glass, for instance, isn’t 100% damage-proof, but it still tends to deter vandals as it requires significantly more time and effort to break than standard glass. Most vandals are eager to get in, cause damage quickly, then escape before they can be caught.
Using barrier or sacrificial coatings can also help prevent permanent damage and deter repeat offenders. Barrier coatings are permanent and make graffiti removal easier. Sacrificial coatings are temporary but protect the underlying surface. These coatings get removed with any graffiti, then a fresh coat is applied.
Control who gets in.
Monitoring and managing who has access to campus after hours should be approached in layers. A professional-grade alarm system can help ensure unauthorized personnel aren’t entering campus grounds or buildings.
For particularly vulnerable areas of the school, where expensive equipment or items are stored—the computer-server room, the bus garage, cafeteria, band room, weight room, etc.—consider an access-control system. This can include security-card readers, number pads, and biometric scanners.
2. Engage Students and Staff in Prevention
Students who feel involved and like they have a measure of ownership over their school are less likely to partake in campus vandalism. There are several ways to foster this kind of culture in your school.
Ask and involve students.
Sometimes, simply engaging with students in a positive, non-accusatory discussion is enough to solve a vandalism problem. Student insight can reveal root causes (boredom, frustration, lack of connection) and spark practical solutions and anti-vandalism strategies uniquely suited to your campus and student body.
Offer positive outlets.
Boredom is a common cause of vandalism. Encourage students to participate in extracurricular activities or safe community programs, like the local youth center’s intramural sports teams, Boys and Girls Clubs of America, Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America, etc.
Promote student ownership.
Intervention Central details a five-step program that classrooms can follow to “adopt” areas of the school prone to vandalism. Students are responsible for that area’s upkeep (trash duty, keeping walls and surfaces clean, etc.) and should earn rewards for how well they manage their area.
Turn walls into art, not targets.
Keep America Beautiful’s research shows that vandals rarely tag murals. If your school has large blank walls, consider having students design and paint murals on them. You might allow each graduating class to create its own mural. Or you might change the murals a few times a year to engage more students.
These murals can be part of an art class project, an after-school activity, or a volunteer project to earn community service hours for Honor Society, Scouts, or Key Club.
3. Partner with Law Enforcement and the Community
You don’t have to prevent all school vandalism on your own, particularly during periods of increased activity, like Halloween week. Actively partnering with local law enforcement and community members can make all the difference.
Increase patrols during Halloween week.
We know that vandalism increases around Halloween, so you should take extra measures. Inquire with local law enforcement about visible patrols on and around Halloween night. Even a single passing squad car can deter would-be vandals.
Rely on your community.
You can and should ask community members for help. Specifically, ask them to report suspicious activity near the school. And, if necessary, ask for help with cleanups or mural projects to restore vandalized campus property after an incident.
Use private security strategically.
Hiring security guards from a private firm is costly and out-of-reach for many school budgets. However, if your campus is under construction with expensive equipment and building materials outside making it an attractive target, short-term private security coverage can be worth the investment.
Always report incidents.
If your school is vandalized, file a report with the local police. Even minor incidents should be reported to enable pattern tracking, targeted patrols, and increased law enforcement presence if necessary.
4. Respond and Restore Responsibly
Even the best-prepared schools can still be targets of vandalism, especially during Halloween. If your school property is vandalized, there are ways to mitigate the damage, move forward, and hopefully reduce future incidents.
Require accountability.
If the vandalism is caused by a student, accountability and making amends is key. When determining consequences, consider the age of the student and the nature of the damage. It’s also important that the consequences educate, not just punish. Having them help clean or repair the damage reinforces responsibility and empathy.
Document and train.
To prevent future vandalism incidents, use a centralized safety training and compliance system, like the EmployeeSafe Safety Document Library, to upload job procedures that specify which staff members secure school access points each day. EmployeeSafe can also be used as a central location to store procedures for reporting vandalism to school administrators and law enforcement.
Track and address behavior.
While the root cause of vandalism is often seemingly benign, like simple boredom, it can also be a symptom of a more serious issue. Logging student vandalism incidents with a centralized student safety and wellbeing system, like StudentWatch, can help teachers, counselors, admin, and other school staff identify problematic patterns of behavior and provide necessary interventions for students in crisis.
Layered Prevention Works
No single measure stops vandalism—but layered strategies across facilities, staff, students, and the community dramatically reduce incidents.
As you prepare for Halloween:
- Reassess lighting, surveillance, and access points.
- Engage students early in ownership and pride.
- Partner with local police for preventive visibility.
Discover how EmployeeSafe and StudentWatch, powered by PublicSchoolWORKS, can work together to help prevent vandalism and promote accountability on your campus.
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