A 6-year-old child might have been the target of a racial epithet found scrawled on a public basketball court in a Mt. Pleasant Township village.
Margaret Klimchock's grandchildren were preparing Sunday to play their final pickup-basketball game of the summer at a playground in United when one of them discovered the message.
The three-word epithet was written on the outdoor court with yellow spray paint and included a racist term. Someone also painted a crude swastika next to the message.
The racist remark and symbol were discovered by Ben Klimchock, 14, who had gone to the court ahead of the others to practice before the game. He immediately reported the racist graffiti to his father, sparing his 6-year-old, biracial cousin from seeing it.
The children, who had wanted to get in one last basketball game before the start of school today, canceled their outing. The youngsters had been playing on the court nearly every Sunday throughout the summer, Margaret Klimchock said.
Although the motive behind the graffiti was unknown yesterday, she said it likely was aimed at her grandson.
"I feel awful," said Margaret Klimchock yesterday as she, her sons and several grandchildren mulled who to contact to have the message removed. "He has every right to America as the next guy."
Ben Klimchock said he had no idea what his young cousin could possibly have done to lead someone to post such a message.
"I can't imagine they were targeting him," said Ben Klimchock, who is an eighth-grader at Aquinas Academy in Greensburg. "He didn't do anything wrong."
The Klimchocks said they were unaware of any prior incidents of the sort in the small, rural community.
No matter the motive, Margaret Klimchock said she couldn't let it pass without trying to identify the culprits.
"It's too important for me to ignore something so hateful," she said yesterday. "They can think what they want, in their own heart and mind, but don't put it in writing."
A state police trooper was investigating yesterday.
