A weekend robbery prompted the students and staff at Willow
Grove School to write a letter to the editor about their reaction
to the theft of school and teacher property.
Teacher Jennie Munger arrived at the Paicines school Sunday to
discover about $200 in missing items, including reading books, a
VCR, a boom box and some Disneyland souvenirs, according to Peggy
Bettencourt, administrative secretary and custodian. While
Bettencourt doesn’t want to give out too many details, the robbers
entered through a door.
A weekend robbery prompted the students and staff at Willow Grove School to write a letter to the editor about their reaction to the theft of school and teacher property.
Teacher Jennie Munger arrived at the Paicines school Sunday to discover about $200 in missing items, including reading books, a VCR, a boom box and some Disneyland souvenirs, according to Peggy Bettencourt, administrative secretary and custodian. While Bettencourt doesn’t want to give out too many details, the robbers entered through a door.
“One of the big issues out here is that we’re behind an overgrown orchard. It hides the school. No one noticed,” Bettencourt said.
By 10 a.m. Monday morning, the students and Munger put together a letter to the editor to express their concern and anger.
“(The students) wrote it first thing in the morning. They were very disgusted and upset that anyone would do it,” Bettencourt said. “We’re a small school – every penny counts.”
School officials filed a report with the police. Bettencourt thinks the robbers are juveniles because of the items taken – including the Disneyland items – and those items left behind.
Willow Grove School has 27 students in two classrooms. Munger teaches students in grades 4 through 8. The school is in Paicines right off of Highway 25. But, because the school is surrounded by land and orchards, there are no neighbors to watch the property or notice anything out of the ordinary, Bettencourt said. An orchard even hides the school from Highway 25, she said.
So far, there are no suspects, Bettencourt said.
Bettencourt said they would have a device installed on one of the doors to deter robberies.
“It’s pretty frustrating. There’s no such thing as an alarm out here – there’s no one to respond. We’re stuck between a rock and a hard place,” Bettencourt said.
Anyone with information regarding the robbery can call Willow Grove School at 628-3256 or the San Benito County Sheriff’s Department at 636-4084
Here’s the text of the students’ letter about their school’s robbery
Dear Pitiful,
My, aren’t you clever and bold, to jimmy the door at a little country school. Well, at least, you might be better educated now if you read any of the children’s literature you took, or watch the movie still in the VCR. After all, Treasure Island is considered a classic, and you probably shied away from that genre in your own school. The desk organizer and all it contained will certainly be a nice addition to your home office. Its modern form should match whatever style you have presently. The boom box has a relaxing CD in it titled Celtic Odyssey. Robbery must be stressful, so we suggest finding a secluded place to sit and listen to it; maybe the hole you crawl into at night.
With Disgust and Disdain,
Students and staff
Willow Grove School
