Graffiti At Gridiron

   Vandals caused several thousands of dollars worth of graffiti damage at East Hampton High School's athletic fields Friday night - just before an otherwise rosy homecoming weekend with wins by the school's football, field hockey, soccer, and boys volleyball teams.

   Obscenities, Satan-worship symbols, one of them a Star of David inside a circle over "666" (a cultist reference to Satan), and crude sexual drawings were discovered early Saturday morning spray-painted on the home and away baseball dugouts, the football press box, the track, and the rock near the football field that the team uses as a source of inspiration.

"Anti-Society"

    "This is a major, major crime," said Christopher Tracey, the high school principal and former district athletic director. "It's in the hands of the police," he added, noting that criminal mischief of this magnitude constituted a felony.

   "We will prosecute," Noel McStay, the District Superintendent, promised yesterday. "We're very, very upset about this."

   Mike Burns, the district's interim athletic director, said he was "saddened by this act of cowardice," the first on such a scale at the high school.

   "It scares me, this us-them mentality. We're not like the schools UpIsland," he said. "It was not anti-jock. It was anti-society."

   "We're confident we'll find out" who did the damage, Det. Lieut. Edward Ecker of the East Hampton Town Police said. An investigation, conducted by Det. Steven Doane, is under way and includes interviews with students, teachers, custodians, administrators - and owners of paint and hardware stores where the spray paint may have been purchased.

   "This does not appear to be a bias crime, and there were no racial epithets," said Detective Ecker, acknowledging, however, that graffiti has been "a problem that's been up west for a while."

Enlist Student Help

Mr. Tracey and Mr. Burns were scheduled to meet this morning with members of the high school's Leaders Club, a group of about 40 varsity athletes who volunteer in the school community. "We believe in involving the kids," Mr. Tracey said. "They will put their ears to the track."

   "The kids are upset," added the principal. "It's a few who spoil things for everyone."

   Brandey Baber, the Student Council president and the homecoming queen, said the council would meet next week with its adviser, Katherine O'Brien, to discuss the episode.

   There was not much talk in the halls about the graffiti, Brandey said, but "most who have heard of it can't believe that kids would put down school spirit like that before homecoming."

Suspension Possible

    Homecoming is a highlight on the school calendar. Teachers were overheard earlier last week observing that their students' "adrenaline was pumping" in anticipation, and that they were having trouble concentrating on academics.

   If the vandals turn out to be members of the high school student body, they will be subject to school discipline in addition to criminal prosecution, Mr. McStay said. In that case, Mr. Tracey is expected to request a Superintendent's hearing, the process whereby students can be suspended for five days or longer.

   Barry Cullum, the school's head groundskeeper, painted over the graffiti on the press box and on the track before the homecoming game with Westhampton on Saturday, and muted the graffiti on the rock.

   The baseball dugouts, which were defaced within and without, had been constructed entirely by volunteers, said Mr. Burns. "I'm sure, if we cannot find out who did it, that people will volunteer to repaint them."

   "The people who did it will fade away," he added. "East Hampton is too good a place to let evil triumph."