The Nassau County Police Department's eighth precinct is investigating two cases of vandalism, one termed a "criminal mischief/bias incident" that occurred at St. Bernard's School in Levittown.

Monsignor George Graham, pastor at St. Bernard's Roman Catholic Church, explained that the first incident, which occurred the first week in September, was a case of vandalism. The vandals broke several windows and then punctured four tires on each of three cars in the parking lot. One of the cars that was damaged belonged to a priest at the church and the other two cars belonged to nuns at St. Bernard's.

According to eighth precinct detectives, "Sometime between 3:30 p.m. on Sept. 10, 1999 and 9 a.m. on Sept. 11, 1999, unknown person/persons scratched 15 swastikas on several plexi-glass windows as well as the concrete and brick facade of the building."

Graham stated that custodians working around the building noticed the damage from this second incident last Saturday morning. Graham believes that both acts of vandalism, which occurred about 10 days apart were done by the same people. "I think it's kids," said Graham.

In order to hide the message of hate, the swastikas on the windows and building have been scratched over so they are not as obvious. Graham said he is not sure how the damage could be completely eradicated but thinks that some kind of blaster or sander would probably be necessary to remove that layer.

When asked why he believes anyone would carve swastikas on a Catholic school, Graham responded, "It's hard to say. I think, probably, they knew it was a symbol of hate and they used it. That might be one reason. Actually the Nazis hated both the Jews and the Catholics and persecuted both so it seems that the descendants of the Nazis, the new Nazis, are doing the same thing, using the same symbols."

Through this crime of hate, the church has also seen acts of goodness. "I was very grateful for the many calls and approaches that have been made," noted Graham. He added that one Jewish family, in particular, had been especially kind to the church. The mother called and told Graham that her sons had been in the church's basketball program even though they were Jewish and that they always felt welcomed. Because, she said, St. Bernard's had always been such a welcoming community she told Graham that she wanted to give something to the church in the wake of this vandalism. When she went to the church, she explained to Graham that her father had heard her on the phone and told her that what she was going to give was not enough so he added his own contribution. Graham described the act of this family as "very generous" and said that he was going to split the money evenly between the priest and nuns whose cars were damaged because, as of yet, the damage hasn't been covered by any of the insurance policies. "I thought I would divide the money evenly among the three of them and that way it would cover most of the expenses of the car," said the monsignor.

Right now the only security procedures that the church has taken are keeping their eyes open and asking neighbors to do the same. Detectives ask anyone with any information regarding this incident to call Crime Stoppers at 1-800-244-TIPS. All calls will remain anonymous.