Graffiti is not just an alternate form of expression

The district where I work just built a new elementary.  They needed to.  The old one has been falling apart and the district is experiencing a population explosion.  Sharing space with the middle school and high school wasn't an option any more.

So, now we have a nifty, new facility.  Lots of color.  Lots of space.  Lots of new technological wizardry funded by a grant ... and now lots of new graffiti.  Some 2nd-4th grade gooberhead has mistaken the walls and floors in the privy for a writing tablet.  In the girl's restroom, it's a lot of girl-drama along the usual lines of "I hate ______ because she likes _______."  In the boy's restroom, it's an expletive written over and over in large letters ... and spelling incorrectly.

It isn't just there, though.  I have other, probably different, gooberheads writing all over stuff in my room, too.  In my room, though, the writing has been confined to folders, science journals, a clipboard, and someone's paper.  I positively identified one of the perpetrators, and she was dealt with by me and by the parent.  So far, nothing new from her.  As for the other, I'm pretty certain I know who it is, and I've contacted the parents about the incidents I can absolutely link to him.  Although I know in my head that he's responsible for the rest of the incidents in my room, what I know and what I can prove are not the same thing.  So, unfortunately, one rotten apple is making the whole room stink, and now I have to get much more strict about movement around the room.  Not the way I like to run a class, but I can't afford to be constantly replacing stuff because someone decides to write all over things.

My paperwork reduction experiment didn't work, but then it was the end of the 6 weeks, which involves unit tests and a flood of incoming redos and missing work as procrastinators decide all of a sudden that maybe they've missed enough recesses for their missing work and all those zeroes aren't going to improve their amount of playtime at home.

So, the experiment continues next week so I can try to recover more time than just Sunday afternoon to work on my writing.

I do have news most fabulous, though!  Virtual Tales reviewed my book proposal for Remnant in the Stars and requested the full manuscript.  Whoot!  They tell me they'll need a couple months to review the book and decide if they want to offer a contract.

This could get interesting!