Youngsters Charged In School Vandalism

Two young boys were charged Thursday in a weekend vandalism spree at Eatonville Elementary School that caused as much as $50,000 in damage and forced cancellation of classes for two days.

Tyrel James Dawley, 11, and Travis Jordan Clark, 12, were charged in Pierce County Juvenile Court with one count each of second-degree burglary, first-degree malicious mischief and third-degree theft.

The first two charges are felonies and the third is a gross misdemeanor.

Dawley was arrested Monday when a school employee called the police and said the boy and a friend were spray-painting graffiti on an abandoned garage near the exit of the elementary school, charging papers said.

The responding officer noticed blue paint spattered on Dawley’s right tennis shoe and remembered that similar paint was spilled in the Feb. 8 break-in, the papers said.

Dawley was brought to the police station where he was questioned, the papers said. He confessed and also implicated Clark, who later confessed, the court was told.

The boys are former students of Eatonville Elementary and now attend middle school. Police Chief Richard Armstrong said earlier they have no history as troublemakers.

They were being held in Remann Hall, a juvenile-detention center, until electronic monitoring devices are set up in their homes sometime next week.