Burglars Plunder L.A. Schools of Computers

A relentless string of burglaries is draining the Los Angeles Unified School District of some of its costliest computer equipment and racking up millions of dollars in damage, perplexing district officials who lack funds to bolster security or replace lost goods.

More than $16 million has been lost to burglars and vandals in less than three years and the number grows every day, with the district suffering about 3,000 break-ins a year.

Thieves and vandals are wreaking havoc not only in Los Angeles but regionwide, breaking the hearts of countless schoolchildren and the spirit of struggling teachers and administrators who have had to cancel computer classes because the equipment is gone.

“This has been absolutely devastating [to] our kids,” said Jill Fager, the principal of Coldwater Canyon Elementary School, which has been struck three times in less than a year. “They can’t understand why somebody would want to steal from them.”

Most of the burglaries occur at night and during weekends and vacations when campuses are vacant for long periods of time. During the recent Memorial Day weekend, 44 district buildings were burglarized, prompting school police to hold a news conference to urge residents to keep an eye on their neighborhood schools and call authorities if they see anything suspicious.

Police say many burglaries are committed by youngsters who prowl a campus until they find a door ajar, then take advantage of it. Brazen thieves also gain entry by dismantling doors, jimmying locks and breaking windows.

Once inside, they ransack classrooms looking for televisions, computers and VCRs, which are resold for profit or kept for personal use. Other times, vandals destroy property by spraying fire extinguishers in offices, smashing computers and copy machines, and defecating in buildings. Some have even killed classroom pets.

The problem is compounded by the fact that the cash-strapped district has stopped insuring itself against vandalism and burglary losses. As a result, it can take weeks or months for the schools to replace stolen or damaged equipment and make repairs. And some losses are never recouped.

Such was the case at the Coldwater Canyon school in Studio City, which lost 20 computers and printers valued at $60,000 to thieves in three separate burglaries that began in November. That forced school administrators to cancel computer classes, robbing students of the chance to improve their word processing skills and to learn to use the Internet.

Fager said one burglary occurred within hours of the equipment’s arrival. As a precaution, she said, she has inscribed and painted the school’s name on the few remaining computers.

Since the burglaries, Coldwater Canyon students have launched a candy sale to raise money to replace the stolen equipment, which was purchased with special school improvement funds.

“When you read about all the other schools that are suffering like we are, you just begin to wonder what is going on,” Fager said. “It is so sad for our children.”

Authorities say the culprits include hardened gang members and drug users in search of booty to sell for drug money, otherwise law-abiding youngsters in search of thrills, and students with grudges.

A 17-year-old boy with a history of truancy was so angry at being expelled from Hoover High School in Glendale that he stole computers, left satanic marks on classroom walls and finally set the school on fire, causing $2.9 million in damage.

But some thefts are inside jobs. Last year, authorities in Ventura County arrested a custodian at a Moorpark middle school on suspicion of stealing three computers and two printers valued at $6,500 from the Moorpark Unified School District.

While vandals and burglars have long preyed on classrooms, L.A. district officials say the financial losses have increased over the years as schools have expanded their stock of pricey computer equipment.

“It’s the specific technology that they take that has changed,” LAUSD Police Chief Wesley Mitchell said. “Computers are the typewriters of the ‘90s.”

Administrators acknowledge that there are too few school police to effectively patrol the district’s sprawling turf, which encompasses 710 square miles.

Most of the district’s nearly 300 school police work during school hours to stem violence among students, the department’s top priority. As a result, only a skeleton crew is left to patrol on weekends, when most property crimes are committed.

Only two patrol cars guard the San Fernando Valley’s 340 schools on a given weekend. In a 10-hour night shift, a two-person school police unit is lucky to visit a school an hour, driving the perimeter or walking the campus.

“We do the best that we can,” School Police Lt. Walter Nelson said. “I think it’s a proven fact that the more people you have on patrol, the less crime you have.”

And while the L.A. district requires campuses with computers to purchase metal lock-down devices, those are hardly foolproof, and not all schools can afford to take the next step and install an expensive alarm system.

“In a perfect world, every school would have an alarm, there would be a pick plate on every door and a key control that opens a particular door,” said Vic Placeres, director of school information systems. “You would basically build a Ft. Knox.”

Not having the proper security has been catastrophic for some campuses, which have been struck over and over again.

In South-Central Los Angeles, Normandie Avenue Elementary School was broken into 35 times in just over a year. Vandals cut up books and maps, defecated in classrooms, and walked away with $40,000 worth of goods.

Across the city in the San Fernando Valley, school administrators installed bars on the windows of Canterbury Avenue Elementary School in Arleta after it was struck 10 times in less than six months.

“We spent $15,000 of our school’s discretionary money to buy security grills,” said Canterbury Principal Santa Calderon. “Since we’ve done that, there have been no break-ins, but it was very demoralizing for our kids to have to put the bars up.”

The money, she said, could have been spent on instructional materials or additional training for teachers.

School administrators such as Calderon say they worry about the effects that crime against classrooms has on students, and they question why more isn’t being done to end the plundering.

“We kind of wonder with all the state-of-the-art technology we’re getting, shouldn’t we also get state-of-the-art security?” she said.

School board member Mark Slavkin said more relief could come in the form of a proposed school bond measure, which would provide funds to improve campus security.

But school police say part of the problem is that no fail-safe methods exist to guard computers. Hacksaws take care of the metal lock-down bars and cables that attach computers to desks. Some bold thieves swipe the desk and computer.

Many of the districts’ precautions are aimed at slowing down burglars or discouraging them by making the computers unsuitable for resale with serial numbers, school codes and names. Some administrators have taken drastic measures to stave off such crimes on their campuses. One Ventura County principal drew criticism from teachers after imposing security measures that locked instructors out of classrooms after school.

Daisy Tatum, the principal of Oxnard High School, refused to hand over school keys and alarm codes to faculty members in an effort to safeguard computer labs, televisions and other equipment housed on the $33-million campus, which opened in September. The result: no break-ins.

In Pacoima, Principal Yvonne Chan took matters into her own hands after a rash of burglaries in November cost her school, the Vaughn Next Century Learning Center, $11,000 in losses.

First, she turned to the neighborhood for help, launching an evening bicycle patrol around the school, and paying sixth-graders “Popsicle money” to keep an eye out for suspicious activity. The students are told not to confront campus intruders, but to report any incidents to school officials.

Next, she doled out $8,633 of the school’s discretionary funds for a 34-room, infrared alarm system with a screaming siren to be installed this month.

For an additional $85 a month, the alarm will be manned 24 hours a day by a private security company. The alarm covers every room that contains one of the charter school’s 200-plus late-model IBMs and Macintoshes with CD-ROMs. An armed guard response team costs an additional $75 a month.

Together, “that’s about $2,000 a year,” Chan said. “But if I lose one computer [to theft], it’s $2,000.

“Once I get that alarm,” she said, “I’m going to catch those suckers.”

Tamaki is a Times staff writer and Folmar is a special correspondent.