Vandals thrash school

By Bill Donovan
Staff Writer

Framed by a broken window on a classroom door, Fred Hood cleans a door covered with fire extinguisher residue at Church Rock Academy Wednesday morning after vandals hit the school over the weekend. Vandals broke into the school and destroyed computers, televisions, copy machines, and windows in nearly every door in the school. [Photo by Daniel Zollinger/Independent]

GALLUP — Public school officials said Wednesday they aren't sure just how much damage was done to Church Rock Academy sometime in the early morning hours of last Friday.

"The damage was extensive," said Gallup-McKinley County School Superintendent Karen White.

Breaking a window to get in, vandals broke through doors, tore up computers and phones and spray-painted graffiti and obscenities on walls. Almost every room in the school was damaged to some extent.

School officials said that the damage done to the building indicates that whoever did it spent a long time in the building.

County and Navajo police suspect at least five people were involved in the vandalism, but so far no suspects have been named.

The school had no video cameras; so, what happened and when is still up to speculation.

John Samford, assistant superintendent for finance for the district, said officials for the company that provides property insurance to the district are expected to do their own inspection of the damage Thursday.

The district has a $750 deductible and the insurance policy provides replacement for any computers and equipment that is damaged, which means that the district should come out better than before the incident since it will be getting new computers to replace damaged models that may have been two or three years old.

This is the second major break-in of school facilities in the last months.

In June two teenagers broke into Tohatchi High School and did extensive damage. The two were later arrested after school officials viewed video camera tape showing the vandalism in progress.

School officials won't have that opportunity in the Church Rock case.

Samford said that because of the cost, the district has only put video cameras in the most remote schools. "The closer you get to Gallup, the less chance that a school has video cameras," said Samford.

Because Gallup is in the same pool as the other school districts in the state for insurance purposes, the fact that the district has had two break-ins should not cause increased insurance rates.

Compared to problems that other school districts in New Mexico have encountered, the problems in this district are small, Samford said.