View of downtown Denver, looking west, from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. Photo: Zenhaus / Wikimedia Commons

The Denver Police Department’s hate crimes team is investigating after two schools were vandalized over the weekend, including one Jewish school and a public school targeted with hateful messages.

George Washington High School, where racist, antisemitic, and homophobic slurs were daubed on several surfaces, was targeted on Saturday night, according to local media reports. On Sunday evening, less than a mile away, a rock was thrown through a window of the Denver Academy of Torah, damaging an electrical box.

The DPB’s Bias-Motivated Crimes squad has said it is investigating both incidents as hate crimes.

The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) told reporters that the graffiti at George Washington High School was “widely dispersed on the sides of the building and on the bleachers,” and that when a witness attempted to confront a suspect at the Denver Academy of Torah, he “referred to Jews in a very disparaging way.”

“This type of hateful behavior will not be tolerated in our community,” ADL Mountain States Regional Director Scott Levin told The Denver Post Monday. “All students, whether they attend a religious school or a public school, deserve to learn in an environment free of intimidation and intolerance.”

In a letter to students and families, George Washington High School Principal Kristin Waters said counseling services will be provided to students affected by the incidents.

‘We will not tolerate this reprehensible act of hate in our community and condemn these actions,” she said.