Vandals slay Knolls Elementary dragon
School exhibit is dismembered; officials ask that perpetrators don't do it again
By Eliav Appelbaum eliav@theacorn.com

Courtesy Ilene Buss SOMETHING'S MISSING- Parents, students and teachers from Knolls Elementary School are upset over an act on vandalism that was perpetrated on school spirit exhibit. Notice the dragon in the middle.

Puff, the Magic Dragon would have been breathing fire if he heard what happened to one of the dragons at Knolls Elementary School.

One of the seven wooden dragons on the Knolls campus had its head cut off by vandals on May 7 or 8. Almost two weeks earlier, the same dragon's leg was broken. It was discovered in nearby bushes on April 28.

"We haven't been able find out who did this," Knolls Principal Judy Cannings said. "It was so malicious. Kids worked so hard to paint the dragons."

Cannings said the school notified Simi Valley Police about the incident.

According to the principal, Chief Mike Lewis told her that two sets of patrol cars would be monitoring the school to see if anyone tries to vandalize the exhibit again, one an officer in an unmarked vehicle who parks and walks around the campus.

The school has asked its neighbors to report any suspicious activity, and a few calls have already been made to police.

"I don't know why someone would want to finish off this one dragon," said Ilene Buss, a parent of a first- and a fourth-grader at Knolls and a member of the school's PTA.

A group of parents who wanted to beautify the school with a medieval theme- the school's mascot is a knight- began building seven 7-foot-tall dragons in March.

Made of wood and decorated with house paint, each dragon represents a grade at the school, from kindergarten to sixth.

Parents and students worked on the project two weekends in March, completing the dragons March 16.

Incoming PTA president Michelle Solties was involved in planning the beautification project, Buss said.

With Solties' direction, students have painted flowers, butterflies, frogs and toadstools in the kindergarten yard. Eagle Scouts helped build walking paths through rose gardens.

The students take real pride in the dragons, Buss said.

"Our main concern is that this took a lot of time and effort from a lot of different people who were involved in this," said Buss, who's lived in Simi Valley for almost 11 years. "It was great to see the kids' reactions when they came to school. They were so excited to see them finally finished. When the dragon's head was vandalized, it was really upsetting. It's just not okay."

Buss and the other parents just want the vandalism to end.

"We don't want to keep fixing the dragons," she said. "We just want it to stop, period."