Vandals Damage School Computers, Books

Teachers at Hillcrest Drive Elementary School were greeted by an all-too-familiar sight when they arrived Monday morning--wrecked classrooms, trashed equipment and graffiti.

Vandals have hit the Southwest Los Angeles campus virtually every weekend since mid-March. Sometimes their visits have been brief, leaving only a minor trail of destruction. Last weekend they stayed long enough to make a mess of three portable classrooms, smashing computers onto the floor, pouring liquid on new textbooks and spraying graffiti inside and outside.

“It’s high frustration when you go into a classroom and everything is destroyed,” said Principal Carole Gentry. She was unsure how many books and computers have been lost but estimated that the most recent damage totaled nearly $30,000.

Assistant Los Angeles School Police Chief Richard Page said his force has stepped up patrols at Hillcrest and installed portable alarms in selected classrooms, thus far without success.

“Even though we can direct our attention to that school because we are having a problem, it’s kind of hit or miss when we go by,” said Page, whose weekend patrols are spread thinly across the sprawling Los Angeles Unified School District, which has about 900 buildings.

Gentry, who said her teachers are angry and upset about the continuing destruction, hopes to organize parents to patrol the campus. “I need all the help we can get right now,” she said, adding that the recent rash of vandalism is the worst she’s seen in the about 10 years she has headed the school.

The equipment, purchased primarily with grants and private donations, was not insured because the cost of coverage was too high. “I don’t know how we’re going to replace them,” Gentry said. Hillcrest’s computer lab was destroyed earlier this year by an electrical fire.

The loss is particularly acute at Hillcrest. One of the 100 poorest-performing schools in the district, the year-round elementary campus of 1,330 students is under pressure to improve.

Though vandalism has become routine at Hillcrest, it is hardly unique. “It’s a chronic problem,” said Pat Spencer, a district spokesman. “Over the last [few] years, the vandalism has increased districtwide while people-to-people crimes have been going down.”

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In the 1995-96 school year, vandals caused nearly $4.4 million in damage across the district. Burglary losses amounted to another $1.8 million, he said.

But it may soon be harder for vandals to smash their way through campuses. Security will be upgraded at schools and alarms installed as part of districtwide improvements planned under the recently approved school bond, Spencer said.