Tisdale mayor personally offering $1000 to double reward for info about vandalized crosswalk

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The Town of Tisdale is not only condemning vandalism that defaced a Pride crosswalk with a black swastika, it’s also offering a $2,000 reward to find who is responsible.

“The first thing that goes through your mind is how disappointed I am in these individuals who acted before they even thought about what they actually did. They didn’t think it through,” Mayor Roy Skoglund said.

Pictures posted to social media show a Pride crosswalk painted by Tisdale Middle and Secondary School students, in collaboration with Suncrest College, earlier in the week was vandalized and noticed by people walking into work on Thursday.

The town is offering $1,000 for information that leads to charges, but that’s not enough for Skoglund, who is putting up $1,000 of his own money to double the reward to $2,000.

“It just hits home with me,” Skoglund. “I’m really disappointed.”

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Tisdale RCMP are investigating and believe the swastika was painted sometime between 9:45 p.m. Wednesday night and 4 a.m. Thursday morning.

The vandalism is being met with shock and disappointment across the community.

“For my kids to come and see that swastika — there was no need. I don’t know. I can’t understand the mentality of the person that would think that that’s a good thing,” resident Bruce Chafe said after walking by the swastika that had since had a vehicle parked overtop of it with signs saying “Together we are better” written on the windows.

“There would be no explanation that I would accept.”

Skoglund said a company was being paid to sandblast the graffiti and Pride flag Friday afternoon.

There are no immediate plans to repaint the Pride flag, but the town will follow the students’ lead once they come to a decision.

Regardless of what they decide, Stacy Lair, the director of education for North East School Division, doesn’t want the students to be discouraged by the vandalism.

“They want to feel belonging and inclusion in our schools and our system,” she said. “And that’s something we’ll continue to work towards and support them to see past something that’s really atrocious like this.”