LAUSD schools burglarized and vandalized 171 times since start of semester, says superintendent

Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho visited a South LA elementary school on Monday after a frustrating string of burglaries in the past several months.

During a press conference, Carvalho said Wadsworth Avenue Elementary School had been burglarized and vandalized six separate times since July. He said the school serves "some of the most vulnerable" and "fragile community members in LA."

"This is a poor school, and it breaks my heart, and quite frankly, it infuriates me to know that a school like this one — that often struggles for the resources the students and parents need," Carvalho said. "Would be burglarized, would be vandalized, would be stolen from six different times since July."

In addition to Wadsworth Elementary, vandals and burglars have hit many other campuses since the school year began, according to LAUSD. In the fall semester, LAUSD had 171 incidents of vandalism and burglary, including bus catalytic converter and copper theft as well as defaced schools and damaged air conditioning units, according to Carvalho.

"As a school system, we don't usually have press events to showcase the bad things that happen, but the community needs to be aware of what's taking place here," Carvalho said. "Beyond the cost, is the inconvenience this brings to the education community, to the teachers, to the students themselves."

Using Wadsworth Elementary as an example since it was the most recent case, Carvalho added that the suspects damaged doors and stole equipment while ransacking through 24 classrooms. He estimates that it will cost LAUSD about $115,000 to change the locks and repair the damage. 

"The individuals had access to the classrooms," he said. "Those doors, some of them have to be replaced. The entire system needs to be re-keyed — that's the same key that opens all of them. We are estimating at this point the damage to be around $115,000."

Wadsworth's pricinpal Jenny Guzman-Murdock said the school is in the process of installing alarms and cameras on campus. Carvalho added that most of the stolen items had serial numbers and a function that allows the school to remotely disable the devices. 

As for the rest of burglaries that happened throughout the school system, Carvalho estimates that LAUSD has spent millions to replace the stolen equipment and fix the damage. 

"This means that we're having to use general fund money to pay for damage or to replace equipment when those dollars need to be investigated in the classroom," he said.

Carvalho said the Los Angeles School Police Depeartment is handling all of the investigations.

"The fact that this continues to happen cannot be the new normal," Carvalho said. "This is an outrage and it has to come to an end."