Montgomery County Police and MCPS security are currently investigating graffiti discovered May 14 at Pyle Middle School on the wall by the tennis courts.
The wall was defaced sometime between Friday afternoon and Saturday morning, and MCPS maintenance cleaned the graffiti off the building Sunday, Pyle principal Jennifer Webster said in an email. This is Pyle’s first incident of graffiti on an exterior wall this year, Webster said.
“I am impressed and grateful to MCPS security and maintenance, as well as the Bethesda police, for how quickly they responded to this issue,” Webster wrote in a Pylenet email.
Police declined to comment, citing an ongoing investigation. There are no concrete leads or suspects in the investigation yet, Webster said in an email.
Some Pyle students said they were scared after the rare graffiti incident, especially because the graffiti depicted a bomb detonating.
“I don’t know people who would do that at Pyle,” said seventh grader Emily Bernhard. “It’s kind of threatening to the school.”
This summer, Pyle was the last MCPS middle school to receive security cameras.
“Unfortunately, the cameras are all inside the building,” Webster said in an email. “We will review them, but I fear they won’t be useful. I’m going to investigate what needs to be done to add cameras outside the building as well.”
If you have any information about the incident, please contact the police’s anonymous crime tips hotline at 240-773-TIPS (8477).