Justice Balances Out as School Gets Confiscated Scales

The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department donated 50 finely tuned scales that had been confiscated from drug dealers to math and science classes at El Sereno Middle School on Tuesday.

Valued at about $125 each, the scales were seized by sheriff’s deputies during drug investigations this year and were to have been auctioned off or destroyed. But science teacher Richard Birmele read reports about goods confiscated on drug busts and asked the department if they had any scales he could use in his classes.

Now, El Sereno students will balance leaf samples and pill bugs on the metal scales that used to weigh heroin and cocaine. Students said the equipment is a big step up from the makeshift scales they make out of plastic bottles and paper clips.

But they had some questions Tuesday about the donated goods.

“Did somebody wash these off before they gave them to us?” asked Deon Chapman, 11.

“Of course, we cleaned and sanitized them,” said Sheriff Sherman Block, who was on hand to show the students how to use the scales.

Birmele’s sixth-grade class spent the afternoon delighting in the novelty of the new scales, weighing rocks, water bottles and watches with the concentration of seasoned scientists.

“This is cool,” said Jamie Galang, 11, as she helped her friend weigh a necklace.

“It’s really helpful.”