Danette Goulet
NEWPORT-MESA -- Vandalism is a problem that costs taxpayers in the
Newport-Mesa Unified School District upward of $25,000 each year.
During the last school year, between Sept. 1, 1999, and June 1, 2000,
the district's maintenance department reported 179 incidents of vandalism
that required cleaning or repair of school property.
Many of those incidents included multiple broken windows or locks or
were listed as "clean graffiti from entire school."
The cost to taxpayers was $28,221.
And that price tag does not include the most recent summer months,
when the school grounds are quieter and more susceptible to vandalism.
Not included in that report were another 31 incidents that occurred in
June alone, officials said.
"I don't get it, why they would do this to their own place of
learning," said school board trustee Jim Ferryman.
"Sometimes it's guys who get all tanked up and break a window, other
times it's a senior prank and they throw stuff in the pool. But they
don't realize that it costs thousands of dollars. That's money we could
be educating kids with."
AGE-OLD DILEMMA
Vandalism is not a new problem at schools. It's not even an increasing
problem at schools, district officials said.
It is an age-old problem that, while consistent, really comes in
waves, said Eric Jetta, the district's director of facilities maintenance
and operations.
"My feeling is I don't think there's more," said Don Martin, who is in
his seventh year as principal of Corona del Mar High School. "I think
it's like waves rolling in from the ocean. It comes in rashes that are
not explainable."
In his 11 years, Jetta said he has not seen a tremendous increase in
the number of incidents, but it has consistently eaten up hours of his
staff's time.
For instance, two years ago -- between Sept. 1, 1998, and Sept. 1,
1999 -- Jetta's staff reported 166 incidents of vandalism, ranging from
the usual broken windows and graffiti to repairing fire-damaged buildings
and windows with bullet holes.
During that year a staggering 95 windows were broken, he said.
Graffiti was cleaned off school walls 71 times.
FEW VANDALS CAUGHT
While the district has a strict policy of making students or their
parents pay for damage, most vandals go unpunished.
"We ask parents to provide restitution for cleaning it up or replacing
items that are broken, but schools, by their very nature, are open to the
public because they are community-owned," said Judy Franco, a longtime
school board member.
