Has ‘Paint Night’ gone too far?

I’ve traced the ‘Paint Night’ tradition as far back as 1966 (thanks to Patti Ritchie). Can you trace it back farther? Fess up, old timers.

Read my story below…

Has Bainbridge Graduation Tradition Gone One Paint Can Too Far?
By Tristan Baurick

It’s all fun and games until someone’s running track or patrol car gets painted.

“Paint Night” — that decades-old island tradition in which high school seniors slather celebratory messages on roads near the homes of classmates — has gone too far this year, say school and police officials.

Formerly confined to roads, painters this week caused thousands of dollars’ worth of damage when they spread coats of white latex on the Bainbridge High School’s track and the “Welcome to Bainbridge Island” sign greeting highway drivers as they cross the Agate Pass Bridge.

Police patrol cars on the lookout for late-night painters also became inadvertent victims of the tradition.

“Two of our cars had to be cleaned several times this week after they ran through fresh paint on the roads,” said Bainbridge deputy police chief Mark Duncan. “We’re out patrolling for this, but we’ve got two or three people covering 28 square miles. We’re outnumbered by a lot of people who can simply hide when they see headlights coming.”

As far back as the mid-1960s — and perhaps even earlier than that — island teenagers have taken to the streets with paint cans and brushes to herald the close of an era. Graduating seniors typically paint a large graduation year and name on paved areas near their friends’ homes. High-traffic streets regularly receive intersection-size messages, such as “2008!” Longtime islander Patti Ritchie fondly remembers Paint Night in 1970, the year she graduated.

“Back then, we kept it to the roads and just in front of your best friend’s house,” she said. “But now, it’s not just seniors doing it, and it’s not just on one night, and it’s not just on roads.”

The 15-foot-long “2008” painted over seven lanes on the high-school track on Friday night cost the school district $500 to remove.

“That was a five-hour job, with pressure-washing and chemicals to get the paint off,” said football coach, track coach and P.E. teacher Andy Grimm.

“They really hit me where I work.”

In 1985, they hit Grimm where he lived. While he never participated the tradition, Grimm said his driveway was hit by fellow Class of ’85 students.

“If you talk to the kids, they know its illegal… but there is that thrill in doing it,” he said.

BHS Principal Brent Peterson said the notion that Paint Night is an island tradition has led to an overly tolerant view of what would otherwise be considered vandalism.

“It’s certainly not endorsed, yet in this community, people actually see it as a tradition that they either like or tolerate,” he said.

Jean LeMaster, who has lived on the island for almost 30 years, viewed Paint Night as “largely harmless” until the sign she helped design was marred by a lopsided “08.”

Painstakingly hand-carved over several weeks by her former partner Ramona Rafferty in the early 1990s, the city-commissioned welcome sign was ruined by a few seconds of sloppy spray painting, she said. Police estimate repairs could cost more than $2,000.

“I was just appalled when I saw what happened” LeMaster said. “That sign took forever to make. For some little creep to do what they did is really discouraging.”