NORTH HOLLYWOOD : Burglars Again Hit Center for Cerebral Palsy

The week has gotten off to a bad start for Jacqui Schafer and the 30 families who rely on her to help treat their childrens’ cerebral palsy.

Schafer, director of the North Hollywood office of the United Cerebral Palsy Foundation, went to the office Monday morning to find that it had been burglarized, and among the items stolen was a computer that helps children with cerebral palsy acquire language and spatial skills.

“It’s just frightening to think there are people out there who would rob a school, let alone a school for handicapped children,” Schafer said. “I don’t know how much lower you can get, except for maybe mugging elderly people.”

Schafer went to open the office Monday morning when she found the front gate unlocked and ajar. Having been on vacation the past week, Schafer guessed that another staff member had come in early to surprise her.

“But the surprise was that someone had broken in,” she said ruefully later Monday. “They probably broke the lock, or cut through the window in the back.”

She said she found a hole cut in one of the rear windows. “It was someone who knew what they were doing,” she said. “It’s no secret who we are. There’s a sign out front. It’s (visibly) set up as a classroom/day-care center.”

The center, situated in a single-story house on Burbank Boulevard just east of Laurel Canyon Boulevard, serves as both a therapy site for infants with cerebral palsy and an after-school program for slightly older children with the condition.

Schafer said the thieves also took a television and VCR, a cassette player and a telephone and answering machine.

While some of the children are most comfortable sitting and watching the television, Schafer did not have that option Monday. “Fortunately it’s not raining,” she said as she prepared to take her young charges out to play.

Schafer said the center has been burglarized at least three times in the past six or seven years. “It always takes a while for us to circle our wagons, and come up with the material or funds to replace” what is stolen, she said.

Though The Cerebral Palsy/Spastic Children’s Foundation is a national foundation, each local chapter is responsible for its own funding. “It’s very likely we will simply do without for some time,” Schafer said.