Study Explores School Design To Reduce Student Vandalism

A sensitive attention to student needs in the design of school buildings would reduce student vandalism, a study conducted by an assistant professor of the Design School maintains.

John Zeisel, assistant professor of the Sociology of Design, said yesterday that the present vulnerability of schools inevitably results in a great deal of property damage.

Zeisel said that planners should design school buildings with the non-scholastic needs of students in mind, so that unnecessary vandalism will not occur.

"Students need places to drink, smoke, hold parties or write their names on," Zeisel said. "We are blaming kids, instead of understanding their values and needs," he added.

Zeisel, working in conjunction with the Public Facilities Department of Boston, reached his conclusions after examining public schools in Boston, New York, Baltimore and Washington D.C.

Zeisel said that a lot of property damage results from students' inability to engage in certain activities at any place other than schoolyards. "When kids do the same things as adults do legitimately, and property damage results, we call what they did illegitimate," Zeisel said.

Zeisel and his associates will aid architects in developing plans for schools which reflect concern for these issues, and with increased funding, Zeisel said, they hope to consider in the future other issues of vandalism.