Vandalism At NE Miami-Dade Charter School Stuns Teachers
NORTHEAST MIAMI-DADE (CBS4) - Vandals swept through a charter school this weekend in what was a disturbing and particularly vicious act of vandalism.
In a tour through all three floors of the Aspira Youth Leadership Charter School, CBS4's Peter D'Oench found shattered glass everywhere.
Principal Iliana Pena told D'Oench that vandals smashed windows on the doors of 30 classrooms and 13 offices, causing an estimated $5,000 in damage in glass alone. In some cases, glass windows were apparently smashed for no reason at all. In other cases, the windows were broken so that the vandals could get inside classrooms and offices and ransack them.
All of the drawers were pulled out inside Pena's office. "I'm dumbfounded," said Pena. "I don't know how much damage there is." She estimated that the vandals had done a total of about $10,000 in damage, stealing basketballs, basketball jerseys, soccer balls and hand-held math-skills computers, along with $200 in cash.
She said $80 was taken from a petty cash box. That money is used for after-school programs for students.
Pena told D'Oench about 600 students in grades 6 through 8 attend the school at 13300 Memorial Highway. She was forced to cancel school for the day, as school workers and teachers cleaned up the damage. She expected her school to reopen on Tuesday.
"It's not just the damage," Pena said. "It's taking away a day's education. I had to close the school because there was glass all over the classroom doors and hallways."
Vending machines were also smashed and snacks were stolen from them. The vandals even struck the school's kitchen, leaving refrigerator doors open and some food on the floor. During the tour, D'Oench noticed a bag of salad and sausages on the floor of the kitchen.
The site was too much for some teachers.
During the tour, Pena stopped to hug a number of teachers who were seeing the damage for the first time.
Math Coach Nancy Delancy-Charles says her office was also ransacked.
"It's very disappointing," said Delancy-Charles. "The bottom line is that we are doing is helping the community and when something like this is done, it doesn't just hurt the school. It hurts the community. I take it personally because I believe in this community and I believe in this school."
Pena says the vandalism happened sometime between 1 p.m. on Saturday, when teachers were last at the school and 1:30 a.m. on Monday, when a school maintenance man first noticed the damage.
The school has an alarm system but Pena says there was an electrical problem with it and it was not working this weekend.
It's not known how many vandals struck the school or how long they were there.
"There was evidence that they were actually playing soccer in the school while they were vandalizing it," said Pena. "And that's why a Miami-Dade Police detective told me he believed the vandals were young."
A Miami-Dade Police spokeswoman told D'Oench that police have no suspects right now.
Anyone with information about this case is asked to call Miami-Dade Crimestoppers at (305) 471-TIPS (8477).
If you want to help the school, you can call Aspira at (305) 893-8050 or go its website: www.aspirafl.org.
The school said there was no surveillance tape of this incident because the school does not have surveillance cameras. "Having them would have been too expensive," said Pena.
"I have no idea why anyone would have wanted to do this," said Pena. "We are a community-based school and we have been around since 1981."
