UPDATE: Teen Suspect ID'd in Stillwater Area High School Vandalism

When Stillwater Area High School staff members arrived to work Wednesday morning, they found profanity had been spray painted on the guard shack, and several pillars at the entrance of the school.

As soon as staff became aware of the profanity-laced vandalism, police were called and the vandalism cover-up process began.

"The school vandalism was not a hate, race or other related incident, just a student that had been in trouble at the school in the past, which I cannot discuss," Oak Park Heights Police Chief Brian DeRosier said.

As the result of an investigation, a suspect was identified and interviewed, the chief said. A 17-year-old boy will be charged at a later date after the dollar costs and further investigation have been completed.

Police are still waiting on damage estimates from the school.

The vandalism was covered up initially with tarps and black plastic, Stillwater Area School District spokesperson Carissa Keister said. Removal will eventually get underway, but the cold weather is making clean-up difficult.

“We just didn’t want to expose students to the profanity,” she said. “The school handled the situation well. They called police and got most of it covered up before students could see it.”

School officials did not formally communicate with students about the incident, Keister said, and there really wasn’t a whole lot of concern from students.

If an individual student asked what happened, they were told the school was vandalized, Keister said.