Halloween is one of the highest-risk nights for vandalism, with 68% more vandalism insurance claims, 8% more theft claims, and 5% more mysterious-disappearance claims, often for stolen, misplaced, or lost items.
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 campus. In addition to smashing a student’s award-winning, 529-pound pumpkin, the vandals egged and graffitied nearly every building on campus.
To protect property outside of school hours, districts can implement several strategies to deter vandalism on Halloween and throughout the school year. This article breaks down four key areas where schools can focus their efforts.
Table of Contents
Strengthen Facilities and Surveillance
Making a campus less attractive and less accessible to potential vandals often starts with security audits and improvements.
1. Lock It Down
Vandals like an easy target, so securing all gates, doors, and access points during “off” hours helps prevent damage to campus. Even if this is already a written policy, consider adding a daily lock check to staff procedures. Schools can use door inspection software, like Raptor SmartAudit, to quickly log door checks in a centralized system, flag any broken or propped open doors, and create a defensible paper trail.
2. Light It Up
Bright, vandal-resistant lighting, indoors and outdoors, is especially important 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.
3. Maintain Visibility
Video surveillance at key entry points and areas where prior incidents have occurred increases visibility that deters vandals. Cameras should be out of reach so that vandals can’t tamper with them. For schools with tight budgets, a mix of live cameras in the most vulnerable locations and “dummy” cameras elsewhere can increase deterrence.
4. Design Around Vandalism
Common vandalism targets, like signage, art, and fixtures, are best kept in well-lit, visible locations but out of reach. Outdoor furniture can also be strategically installed 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.
5. Landscape Intentionally
Strategic landscaping can also make campuses less attractive to potential vandals. Installing sharp or thorny plants near signs, blank walls, windows, and balconies makes them less accessible. Easily climbable trees can be pruned and positioned away from walls and windows, so they cannot be used as ladders. “Beware of poison ivy” signs in garden beds are 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.
6. Reinforce Vulnerable Materials
Even for commonly targeted surfaces and fixtures, some of the worst vandalism damage can be prevented. 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 when graffiti is cleaned, then a new coat needs to be applied.
7. 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.
Consider an access-control system for particularly vulnerable areas of the school, where expensive equipment or items are stored, like
- computer-server rooms
- bus garages
- cafeterias
- band and orchestra rooms
- weight rooms
- tool or woodworking shops
Access control systems typically include security-card readers, number pads, and biometric scanners.
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.
8. 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.
9. Offer Positive Outlets
Boredom is a common cause of vandalism. Schools can help address the problem at its source by encouraging 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 or Big Brothers/Big Sisters of America.
10. Promote Student Ownership
Intervention Central details a five-step program that schools can follow to “adopt” areas of campus that are frequently vandalized or in danger of being vandalized (e.g., low-supervision but high-traffic spaces, like bathrooms or stairwells):
- Identify areas prone to vandalism.
- Set goals for improving each space.
- Set a quality threshold each space needs to meet.
- Assign classrooms or student groups to “adopt” each space.
- Start monitoring progress and giving students feedback.
Students responsible for an area’s upkeep might take on duties like trash collection, keeping walls and surfaces clean, or beautifying the space. It’s often most effective to involve students in the brainstorming process for how to improve their assigned space to help instill a sense of ownership over the project.
When spaces meet or exceed the minimum quality threshold, students earn equivalent rewards for how well they manage their area.
11. Turn Walls into Art, Not Targets
Research has shown that murals may be effective at preventing graffiti. If your school has large blank walls, consider having students design and paint murals on them. Each graduating class could create its own mural, or staff 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.
Partner with Law Enforcement and the Community
Schools don’t have to prevent all vandalism on their own, particularly during periods of increased activity, like Halloween week. Actively partnering with local law enforcement and community members can make all the difference.
12. Increase Patrols during Halloween Week
Schools can inquire with local law enforcement about visible patrols on and around Halloween night. Even a single passing squad car can deter would-be vandals. Your School Resource Officer (SRO) may be a good person to help start this conversation and coordinate efforts.
13. Rely on Your Community
Asking school neighborhood residents to report suspicious activity near the school can be most helpful during Halloween week. To make it more likely that concerns are received and acted on quickly, share a clear way for community members to report, such as the local police non-emergency number or a designated school contact.
14. 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.
15. Always Report Incidents
When a school is vandalized, a report should immediately be filed with the local police. Even minor incidents should be reported to enable pattern tracking, targeted patrols, and increased law enforcement presence if necessary.
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.
16. 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. Helping clean or repair the damage can reinforce responsibility and empathy.
17. 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.
18. 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 StudentSafe, can help teachers, counselors, admin, and other school staff identify problematic patterns of behavior and implement proven frameworks, like Positive Behavior Intervention Support (PBIS), to prevent future incidents.
Layering Multiple Strategies to Prevent Vandalism
No single measure stops vandalism, but layered strategies across facilities, staff, students, and the community can dramatically reduce incidents.
As schools prepare for Halloween, it can be helpful to
- reassess lighting, surveillance, and building access points
- engage students in campus ownership and pride
- involve local police and community watch programs in your Halloween security plans
Discover how Raptor’s comprehensive school safety platform can help prevent vandalism and promote accountability on your campus.
Related Resources
Get our Guide to Digital Hall Pass Solutions to learn how to combat vandalism during school hours, too.
