Shock as hate symbols sprayed across Riverview park named for teen who led kindness campaign

Several parents say they were shocked to find a hate symbol spray painted over a Riverview playground dedicated to a teen who led a campaign encouraging kindness before she died of cancer.

"Shock and disbelief and disgust were the first few things that came to mind," Tosh Taylor said Monday about the swastikas. 

"And then anger hit pretty quickly."

The swastikas were painted on various pieces of playground equipment, a mural and a stone at the Rebecca Schofield All World Super Play Park beside Frank L. Bowser School. 

Lara Lavoie, another parent and a member of the home and school committee, said she saw the graffiti while dropping her child, who attends Grade 5, at school. Lavoie said her son was upset because he knows the significance of the symbol. 

"He was really upset and looking for answers," Lavoie said. 

The park is named after Rebecca Schofield, who was 18 when she died of brain cancer in 2018. Schofield inspired a campaign of random acts of kindness known for the hashtag BeccaToldMeTo.

More than $650,000 was raised to rebuild a playground in her name beside the school, which was completed in 2019.

Schofield's mother, Anne, sent a statement to CBC News, saying the family is "saddened and disgusted that a park built by and for the community in honour of Becca and her mission to spread kindness has been vandalized with hate symbols."

"The Schofield family condemns antisemitism, hate and discrimination in all its forms and hope the culprit will come forward," she wrote, thanking the school district and school staff for "their quick action" in covering up and removing the symbols.

Taylor, also with the home and school group, said the park is an important part of the school and the community.

"We helped fundraise for that park, we helped build that park. Our literal blood, sweat and tears have gone into that park."

Randy MacLean, superintendent of Anglophone East School District, sent a memo to parents Monday saying staff arrived at the school in the morning to find "symbols and words of hate and vulgarity."

Tarps were used to temporarily cover the vandalism, and the playground was closed for the morning. District staff had removed the symbols by midday.