10 Rooms Vandalized at Van Nuys School

Students and teachers at a Van Nuys elementary school discovered Monday that 10 classrooms had been vandalized, and were particularly disheartened by the loss of a pet frog, the school’s principal said.

The weekend vandalism at Cohasset Street School was more destructive than five other such crimes since the school year began in August, Principal Maria Villasenor said.

The vandals broke windows to get into classrooms where they emptied drawers, pulled belongings from closets and removed possessions from the children’s desks. They covered the walls of one room with profanity, Villasenor said.

Jessie, a frog who was kept as a pet in a first- and second-grade classroom, had also vanished, Villasenor said.

The school had not yet estimated the cost of cleaning the classrooms and repairing 13 broken windows. But Villasenor said she plans to install $23,250 worth of security screens on windows in the 31 classrooms.

She will also call a meeting of parents next week, asking them to watch for signs of suspicious activity at night and during the upcoming Christmas break.

The Los Angeles Unified School District Police Department knows of no suspects in the vandalism and will increase patrols in the area, Assistant Chief Richard Page said.

Page said he did not believe that the same vandals were responsible for all the incidents.