Hollister
– R.O. Hardin and Calaveras Elementary schools fell prey to
pre-teen vandals over the weekend as five classrooms were ransacked
and a number of small objects stolen.
Hollister – R.O. Hardin and Calaveras Elementary schools fell prey to pre-teen vandals over the weekend as five classrooms were ransacked and a number of small objects stolen.
“This is really heartbreaking,” R.O. Hardin Principal Linda Smith said. “The teachers put a lot of effort into these classrooms, so for something like this to happen is really terrible.”
Four classrooms were broken into and vandalized at R.O. Hardin and one at Calaveras Saturday and Sunday. Though the severity of the damage varied, all five were practically unusable Monday morning as volunteer clean-up crews and maintenance staff gutted the classrooms.
“It’s really bad out here,” parent volunteer Melissa Mitchell said. “Some child out there must be very angry if they feel they have to do this.”
The vandals broke in through the windows, tore student artwork off the walls, broke furniture, sprayed fire extinguishers all over the rooms, destroyed books and materials, smashed up computers, and splattered orange and black paint throughout the rooms. At Calaveras, the vandals even scattered bags of sugar or flour that had been housed in the room for a cooking demonstration, and a few items were stolen from the classrooms as well. Police estimate the financial toll of the damage to be in the “thousands.”
“It looked like a bomb went off,” Smith said.
Three male juveniles ages 10, 11 and 12 are currently in custody for the vandalism. After the alarm went off at Calaveras, a staff member caught one of the boys and stopped him from escaping. After investigating, officers arrested the other two boys at their home later in the day. At this point, it appears the alarm may not have been triggered at R.O. Hardin.
“I spoke with one of the moms, and she had been at work all day and had no idea where her child was,” Lt. Carlos Reynoso said. “It’s so important to know where your kids are and that they have adult supervision.”
Reynoso added that at this point there is no indication that the incident is gang-related, and that at least one of the suspects was a Hollister School District student.
Because of the sorry state of the classrooms, students were relocated to the library, unused rooms, or shared rooms with other classes, and it was clear that due to the extent of the damage, students would not be able to return to normal class for several days.
“I went and talked to these students; there’s some hard feelings,” Smith said. “One said, ‘Well even if we do make our classrooms nice again, what’s stopping them from coming back?’… You just have to do your best and hope they don’t.”
Jack Bachofer, HSD’s chief business official, said the juveniles’ parents would most likely be responsible for covering the cost of the damage.
“Apparently they’re going to go after the parents’ homeowner’s insurance or personal insurance first, or hold them directly liable,” he said.
Though a number of break-ins have occurred at R.O. Hardin – including one over the summer and a few during the previous school year – none have been this extreme, said Smith.
“This is the worst I’ve ever seen,” she said.
Smith said the school would be looking into how feasible increased security measures would be for R.O. Hardin, but for now parents and staff at both schools are focused on how best to move forward.
“This shows we have to focus our energies on kids who are troubled and feel they have to do something like this,” Calaveras Principal Christine White said. “Kids who want to do damage might have had a not-good experience at school, and we have to reach out to them.”
Danielle Smith covers education for the Free Lance. Reach her at 637-5566, ext. 336 or [email protected].
