Two boys have been charged with vandalizing Thomas W. Pyle Middle School in Bethesda three times this summer, Montgomery County police said.
County police were called to the school on Wilson Lane around 11:35 p.m. June 25 after a school security officer reported seeing two boys painting graffiti on the back of the school building before fleeing on bicycles.
Police said the school’s principal told an officer that on July 20 two boys were seen “spray painting vulgarities” on the school walls, basketball court and track.
The third incident occurred Aug. 21 when police found a wall near the baseball field had been spray painted, police said.
Police did not elaborate on the details of the messages that were spray painted in the first or third incidents.
Police identified the two boys as the alleged culprits and charged each Aug. 24 and 26 with three counts of malicious destruction of property, police said. The boys were released to their parents, and the case has been moved into the jurisdiction of the Montgomery County Department of Juvenile Services, police said.
Shiera Goff, a police spokeswoman, told Bethesda Beat that the department can’t release what school the boys attend because they are juveniles, and the department isn’t releasing their ages because they are being charged with misdemeanors.
A Montgomery County Public Schools spokesman could not immediately be reached for comment.
Dan Schere can be reached at daniel.schere@bethesdda-remix.newspackstaging.com