Sheyanne Romero

Fillimon Ayala stood back, looked at the graffiti on the wall, shook his head and started sweeping the sidewalk.

“You have to get over it,” he said. “Whether you like him or not, he’s our president.”

On Monday, Tulare County park employees were greeted with bold red graffiti written on the wall of a bathroom in the east portion of Cutler Park, just northeast of Visalia.

On the wall were the words, “[Expletive text] Trump” it was covered by the word “Love”. Vandals also wrote “Viva Mexico” and “Chapo 2016”.

Found on the concrete next to a bench was, “[Expletive text] Trump ....make America hate again”.

Ayala has worked with Tulare County Parks for more than a year.

“I don’t know why they involved Mexico,” he said. “They have nothing to do with this.”

Employees say they find graffiti in the bathroom stalls but it’s often gang-related.

“Southside gangs,” said Senior Ranger Roel Gonzalez. “I was surprised but I shouldn’t be.”

By 9 a.m., the graffiti was covered with a fresh coat of mushroom-color paint. However, the writing on the concrete will take longer to remove.

“It’s expensive to remove,” said manager Neil Pilegard. “It costs us in labor and paint.”

Election backlash hasn’t stopped there.

Threats of student-led protests began to circulate Tulare County last week.

After social media posts about a student walk-off on Thursday, Tulare Joint Union High School District took precautions and alerted parents of the potential strike.

Julie Beltran, the mother of a Tulare Union student, said she kept her son home from school after he left campus for lunch.

“This is bad,” she said. “Kids have never seen a Republican in the White House.”

She went on to say that parents could be the reason their children wanted to protest.

Tulare Western High School Principal Kevin Covert stood at the school’s gate as students left the campus for lunch.

“We didn’t observe students walking off campus,” he said. “I didn’t see any more or less students than we would normally see.”

Tulare Union and Mission Oak high schools followed suit, administration said.

Tulare Western faculty has also urged students upset over election results to communicate those feelings with staff.

“We’ve been talking to students about it,” Covert said. “We invite them to share their feelings with counselors.”