Vandalism has become an increasing issue at Cerritos College.

Recently, various club posters and Wings Magazine publications of have been torn, thrown to the trash, and even stolen.

Director of Student Activities Holly Bogdanovich said that most students are not even aware or have an accurate definition of what vandalism really is.

She said, “Some students do things like trying to take the tape off of a poster or start writing on the poster. They don’t realize that by even trying to destroy property that is not theirs is vandalism.”

One of the victims of vandalism is Alex Aguayo, president of the Queer Straight Alliance.

Several posters promoting events and activities of the club have been torn, taken down, and some even purposely thrown to the trash.

“It’s understandable if the rain or wind would be the cause of these happenings,” he said, “but most of the posters we find in the trash do not even have traces of rain on them. They don’t even look wet.”

Even a simple act, such as texting on a phone during a test, paves the way for a cheating misinterpretation and could therefore be considered vandalism.

“There are some students who have been caught texting answers to another classmate during a test and don’t even know that is considered vandalism. Cheating is vandalism,” Bogdanovich said.

Students need to realize that there are consequences for vandalism and that other people’s belongings need to be respected, Aguayo said.

“Everyone is entitled to his own opinion and does not necessarily have to agree with someone else’s view,” he said, “but when it gets to a point where belongings are getting vandalized, consequences need to be implemented.”

Although he hopes someone is not trying to purposely vandalize the QSA’s posters, Aguayo highly doubts a natural cause is the reason behind all the damaged.

He added, “I would like to think it is just the rain or the wind. If that is the case, then that is one homophobic wind.”