All Saints School plagued by break-ins
While crime often dominates the local news, by no means do we, or other news outlets anywhere in the world, report every single infraction of the law. For example, numerous houses and vehicles are broken into every day around the country that are not considered important enough to mention. But when the same place is burglarised over and over again, it’s no longer business as usual. Jose Sanchez reports from All Saints School.
Jose Sanchez, Reporting
Three weeks ago thieves left one room in shambles with books thrown all over the floor. Last week Friday the locks to several classrooms were broken. And the school’s vice principal started the morning not with school prayer, but by reporting another set of vandalized classrooms to the police.
Carl Lopez, Vice Principal
“Well we have had about five or six break-ins since January. It’s several locations we have three buildings and we’ve had break-ins in all three.”
Jose Sanchez
“What sort of things did they take?”
Carl Lopez
“Well, anything they can sell or pawn out. We have lost water coolers, books, soft drinks, radios, clocks, a lots of things.”
The thieves carried anything that they could get their hands on, even food from the school’s feeding programme for students.
Lina Puc, Secretary All Saints Church
“We have the feeding programme. Since school opened they took the mayonnaise, we had a big bag of mayonnaise, recado. In my office, when school opened in September, they took out the phone. They took the phone, they actually stole the phone. And we can’t actually keep nothing in the office either. As you can see the windows are all broken and bent, we have to keep them boarded up for now.”
Rosalie Bell, Teacher
“About three times they have broken into the classrooms and they usually come through a window. They rip the window off and come through the window. We have a door that leads into the three classrooms, so they go into one classroom.”
Jose Sanchez
“What items did they take?”
Rosalie Bell
“Mostly teachers supplies such as stars, stickers, markers. We have a container with art and crafts supplies for the Arts and Crafts Club and they went with the ribbons, glue sticks and things like that.”
Jose Sanchez
“I understand the building has an alarm.”
Rosalie Bell
“Yes it has an alarm, in the morning when we open it, it works, but when the thieves come it doesn’t work.”
Jose Sanchez
“Being a teacher you want to have a classroom with the proper materials, how does this affect you?”
Rosalie Bell
“Well it’s discouraging, especially for me because most of the materials I use come from the U.S. and they are expensive.”
Though the prices of the items stolen vary, it is still costly to the students. In the end it’s their education being robbed. Reporting for News 5, Jose Sanchez.
