Sharing this story from WBNS TV-10 in Columbus "College Students Help with Vandalism at Green Lawn Cemetery"
by Shelby Croft
"COLUMBUS, Ohio"
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The recent vandalism at a Columbus cemetery is now the focus of a college course.
"Green Lawn Cemetery just announced a $1000 reward for information leading to the arrest of the culprits.
Now Columbus State Community College students are helping with the tedious task of finding and mapping all of the damaged gravestones.
“Like a museum, like walking through a museum,” said Roger McGlaughlin.
Mcglaughlin strolls through Green Lawn Cemetery to take in the history.
“It’s just gorgeous,” said McGlaughlin.
Mcglaughlin restores gravestones. He had no idea he'd find work on this trip. And so much of it.
“It’s just uncalled for,” said McGlaughlin.
Hundreds of stones knocked over and broken. Vandals have hit about eight times since August.
“We’re 170 years old and so the families may not be here anymore,” said Green Lawn Cemetery Board Chair Randy Rogers.
History destroyed and the repairs may never get done.
“It takes specialized tools and materials and those are expensive,” said McGlaughlin. “It’s very time consuming, yeah.”
The cemetery just teamed up with Crimestoppers to offer a reward for information leading to an arrest, and they have beefed up overnight security.
“We do have several cameras in the cemetery, we move them around,” said Rogers.
Help is coming in another form as well. Students from Columbus State's geo-mapping department are logging all of damaged stones.
“So what we look for is the type of marker it is we look for the names on it, the dates on it,” said Columbus State Associate Professor Annie Parsons. “The type of damage, sometimes they’re toppled, sometimes they’re broken.”"
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© 2001-2016 by David K. & Leona L. Gustafson
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