NORTH HOLLYWOOD : $35,000 in Classroom Equipment Stolen

Police are investigating the theft of nearly $35,000 of electronic equipment from a classroom at the North Hollywood High School’s magnet center at the Los Angeles Zoo.

The break-in targeted one of the Animal Studies/Biological Sciences Magnet Center’s bungalow classrooms located in the zoo parking lot. A teacher, who discovered Thursday morning that computers, printers, television sets, video cassette recorders and laser disk players were missing from his room, said the theft appeared to be an inside job.

“They knew exactly what they were looking for,” said science and computer teacher Barry Shapiro. “They only hit my room.”

Both the Los Angeles Police Department and the Los Angeles Unified School District police are investigating the theft, but do not have any suspects. Catherine Lum, principal of North Hollywood High, said the school’s dean of students plans to ask the magnet students Monday about the theft.

Shapiro said years of accumulated material and computer programs were lost in the break-in, because every disk in the room, including “backups of backups” was stolen. He said he is concerned about finishing the semester.

“How do you teach a computer class without computers?” he asked.

The thieves entered through a hole they cut in a wall of the three-room bungalow and carefully removed the equipment, much of which was bolted to carts or tables.

The Magnet program, which is affiliated with North Hollywood High School, was created in 1981. The 280 students in the program come from all over Los Angeles and take shuttles to the North Hollywood campus for other classes, lunch and sports activities.

Lum said because the district does not reimburse such losses, the school is hoping for private donations to replace the equipment.

“It took years to accumulate all this,” Lum said. “To have it all wiped out in one moment is really devastating.”