Banksy-Inspired Graffiti Hits RUHS

The graffiti sprayed on the walls, trash cans, benches and other areas of over the weekend wasn't the typical urban scrawl.

Instead, the stenciled pictures of rats cutting locks and leaking pipes, among other images, drew comparisons to the work of Banksy, an elusive yet world-renowned  graffiti artist.

Banksy, who first exhibited his work in Los Angeles in 2002, received an Academy Award nomination for Best Documentary Feature for his 2010 film Exit Through the Gift Shop.

"Hey guys, Banksy goes to my school!" tweeted Twitter user Anjali, who also posted a photo of the graffiti.

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Students on Facebook debated whether the work of the "typographical terrorist"—as the graffiti artist called himself in a message scrawled in red paint—was meant as a tribute to the artist or a rip-off of his work.

While at least one student called the graffiti "unoriginal" and another thought it was disrespectful, yet another said that it "makes our school original."

No matter how original it made the campus, several of the nearly 40 stenciled tags had been painted over by the end of the day Monday.

The graffiti comes less than a week after the High Tide, Redondo Union's student newspaper, published an editorial by Anthony Leong about whether graffiti is art or vandalism.

"If you're tagging your illegible name I'm inclined to think you're wasting time, energy, money and paint," Leong concluded. "If you're an artist—if you have a message to send or a feeling to evoke—I'm inclined to see it as the victimless crime that it is."

This is the third time this year that graffiti has been found at the high school. Principal Dr. Nicole Wesley recently told reporters at the High Tide that she planned to put up more security cameras around campus.

According to a report in the Daily Breeze Crime & Courts blog, the weekend's graffiti will cost about $3,000 to clean up.

Anyone with information about the graffiti is asked to call the at 310-379-2477.