Where is DISD Police? Did the local police notify them of the offense since they are primarily responsible.

I'm sure that the Arson and Graffiti are directly linked...heck what's next food fights and homicides?

Dallas and DISD seem to thwart the best intentions people have to stay in a neighborhood.

Everything everyone has suggested has been tried at some point in time. Some of us are not going to beat our head against a wall any longer. We will wait things out and vote with our feet as others have.

I recently asked a former RT Hill student what he liked best about Hill. He said the best part was when everyone came together in the auditorium for school spirit.

DISD has a graffiti response team which is actually pretty good about getting out there quickly.

They have to be notified by the school though for it to happen.

Any news on a principal for Hill yet? No sight of one at staff development.

[Ed Note: It looks like they removed the graffiti today. No word, yet on a principal, but I don't think the lack thereof is Dr. Hinojosa's fault. More on this later.]

This is a very common thing just before school starts. It is a recruiting tactic used by gangs to mark territory as the new kids come on campus.

Note your telephone junction boxes, back of stop signs and alley fences, as well. I ask that all who read this--no matter what district you live in, but especially in Dallas, Garland and Lake Highlands part of RISD, check by the schools.

Staff are on duty, so they should have seen it, but citizen input can "speed up" attention.

Seriously, if reported early enough, the DISD guys can be by there the same or next day.

Please take photos and call the GANG units of the city and the school district. Call both. DISD has over 250 campuses. DPD has a huge city. Doing a little leg work for them really helps, and it shows them which neighborhoods care to help and work with them.

[Ed Note: Yes, they cleaned it today. As I say, we're offering a reward for the miscreants who did this.]

Another DISD school had graffiti done to it earlier this year. It's interesting that school was never mention. In fact Village Fair had it done as well over the past few years.

As for putting up cameras. FORGET IT. A certain Dallas ISD school with working cameras got broken into, had cameras broken and gang graffiti plastered on front of the school. On front of the school's second floor.

How about we get more staff in our schools to watch everything instead of cameras that "miss" student misconduct and can seem to find staff doing whatever.

[Ed Note: How about we get vandal-proof dome cameras, and point them where mischief is likely to occur?]

Look up! Many DISD campuses now have dome covered cameras way-y-y up for outside looking. Inside, the cameras are not only viewed from inside the school, but they can also be monitored "downtown."

In defense of DISD, there are over 230 school buildings with multiple cameras to install. It takes time. Skyline will have over 70 cameras alone.

Noticed today that the Hill Principal position was posted again and the deadline is August 13th. How are they supposed to be ready for school w/o a principal?

[Ed Note: They have a very good interim principal. Keith Evans will do a good job. He seems to be liked by faculty, staff and students. He'll be involved with the community and will be discipline-centric. They'll be OK.]

Ok, gangs like to Tag the school. And? Those kids that tagged the school are probably kids that go to the school. It shows low morale for the school and the community that it got tagged.

There will always be "gang" kids in schools. They have "gang" parents. With 2.3 Million folks in prison in the good old USA, there may be third or fourth generation gang kids in schools.

The "gang" does not offer much, but it offers something many kids are lacking, a way to feel accepted and something to believe in.

A school being the "Tigers" or the "Falcons" is a gang symbol. Something to feel a part of, something to believe in, something that will get your back.

The deterrent to kids tagging a school is not law enforcement or cameras. It is a social structure that will not tolerate it, that by defacing the school, it is damaging an important part of the social fabric of the neighborhood.

[Ed Note: The real deterrent, as you start to point out, are the parents. When parents start to care, the problems will stop.]

Parents can tend to be more and excuse than a solution.

Parents who care will have there kids do much better than those parents who do not care, or are not functional at level to be helpful in their child's life. I am sure that they love them, but, they may not have the savvy to do a good job being a parent.

Let me mix a few apples with my oranges. They two kids locked up on double murder charges for taking the train up to Garland to rob and maybe murder, because as one of the suspects stated, I needed a car and some money.

He is nineteen, does he have children, do his children go to a public school?

What I am getting at, is often, parents are doing the best the can, but they are having a hard time getting what needs to be done for their child done. They need to be excluded from the equation, or brought in by exercising some sort of social control over the parents.

A successful public education for the poorest must embrace parents when they are working in tandem, more often, however, it must make up for the lacking on the part of the parent. Thus, leveling the playing field.

Back to public schooling. It failed those two gentleman, used loosely on many levels. While going to another neighborhood to commit a crime was smart. The did a poor job after that. They shot two folks dead because they thought since they were some where else, no one could ever figure out they did it.

How to get what you want you with out killing someone, or just waiting till it happens. Basic kindergarten level about how the world works. But, they most likely have had children. Those children will be in a public school in Dallas.

I am not sure how much parental support that is wanted.

A good school can build a child into a good parent, in spite of their parents. But, it takes time. Schools should not only be focused on reading and writing, but also about a way to live.

Somewhere along the way with schools being focused on marginal academic achievement for the poor, the ideal of instilling social harmony has been lost.