Juvenile artist draws community service

By Jeanne Starmack

starmack@vindy.com

struthers

An eye for an eye.

A young graffiti artist whose fondness for drawing large triangles around a single, giant eye now has to pay for his artistic expression with community service.

His work started turning up on buildings throughout the city in the fall, confounding police and city officials who don’t think graffiti is the best magnet for drawing new businesses into the city, said Ray Greenwood, the Struthers police detective who handles juvenile matters.

The 15-year-old, a student at Struthers High School, was arrested Feb. 8 after the police department’s school-resource officer learned the boy’s notebook contained drawings similar to the building art, Greenwood said. The youth will do up to $700 worth of voluntary community service to keep out of the Mahoning County juvenile-court system.

There’s been no new drawings since his arrest, Greenwood said.

Still, his artistic spree ruffled Mayor Terry Stocker enough to want to make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“I’m trying to promote economic development in the community, and we want to send a strong message that vandalism won’t be tolerated,” he said Tuesday.

He said the city has a law stating that parents or guardians can be held financially responsible for property damage, or they can do community service along with their child to get out of paying the bill.

The school district and the city also are talking about doing an anti-graffiti video in the spring, said Greenwood.