In the category of keeping up with the kids, pay attention to odd things in your kids' backpacks and pockets. Al Tompkins of the Poynter Institute refers to a link from the The Berkeley (Calif.) Police Department . Its Web site explains graffiti and details, among many other items, favored tools of the graffiti vandals:

"Spray paint is the traditional tool ... Today's youth have been known to use paint, shoe polish rolls, etching tools, rocks, pens almost any instrument that can leave a distinctive mark on a surface. 'Slap Tag' is another method of graffiti. This form entails writing out the Tag Crew's name or the individual's tag name on a sticker. The sticker is then slapped onto poles, walls, newspaper bins or any surface. The tagger will often times carry on their person sheets of stickers ready for slapping onto any surface."

Great, so now do we have to lock up the stationery department behind wire doors?