Accused vandals help workers clean school

[Beth n Rod]

Tuesday August 26, 2008
Accused vandals help workers clean school
Janitor says one boy worked hard while the others complained, accomplished little
by Ry Rivard
Daily Mail staff

CHARLESTON, W.Va. -- Several juveniles accused of vandalizing J.E. Robins Elementary School joined janitors there last week to remove paint, glitter and dried foam from the West Side school.

The school, which opened today to students, looked almost as good as new Monday, about a week after multiple classrooms and hallways were vandalized. School Principal Henry Nearman said the students, who have not been identified, were "very apologetic" when they showed up for clean-up duty, and their visit provided a little bit of closure for some school employees. "They had to face the teachers," school librarian Bridget Hinamon said. "They walked in the classrooms and said, 'Hey, what can I do to help?" Hinamon spent last week cleaning up after the vandals instead of doing lesson plans. Still, she was unable to get the paint off the $300 rug she had saved up school money to purchase. "I felt I spoke my piece when I told him about that," Hinamon said of one of the boys who came in to help clean the building. Work crews had spent all summer readying the facility for the start of school.

Several janitors said Monday they weren't certain how much the students had learned from their experience. "They didn't do that much work," janitor Ralph Wilson said. "They made a mess more than anything else. You asked them to do something and they said it was too hard." He said one 14-year-old boy came in several days and worked very hard. But he said he and other custodians had to follow behind other students as they cleaned.

On the night of Aug. 15, police say eight juveniles broke into the Beech Avenue school. The vandals went room-by-room splashing paint across the walls and floors, on ceilings and doors, and around the inside and outside of toilets. They released the chemicals in the fire extinguishers, and the white foam wound up setting off the fire alarms.

Five of the suspects and their families came in last week to help janitors and apologize.

Because the suspects are juveniles, authorities will not release their names. Most of them face charges of breaking and entering, destruction of property and petit larceny, Charleston police detective Scott Dempsey said. None of them are students at Robins, though at least one might have attended a few years back, officials said. There was no estimate of the clean up costs. Two maintenance crews with custodians from around the county worked days and evenings to get the school back in shape.
Wilson said while the facility is safe and ready for students, he's not completely satisfied with how things look.

The hallway floor, for instance, had six coats of wax before the break-in. After scrubbing the paint off last week, there has only been time for one coat. Upon first glance, problems aren't evident. But closer inspection reveals smears of blue paint on the carpet outside the principal's office. There is orange paint across the bulletin board and inside the TV speakers in Room 108, where the vandals are thought to have entered. Red drippings are still visible on the doors. The bathrooms sinks have a blue tinge. But it's far from the scene of pandemonium that greeted firefighters, police and school employees little over a week ago.

After breaking in, the vandals had access to all but a few classrooms because most of the inside doors were unlocked to allow teachers, carpenters and janitors to move easily within the building. Nearman said all the doors are normally locked at night.

The vandalism didn't deter parents and their children from coming to check out the school. Tyleemah Edwards was there Monday to enroll her first- and fourth-grade children. She had heard about the vandalism but wasn't concerned because she had heard good things about the school.
She said she thinks part of the problem with vandalism is that many children don't have anything to do after they get out of school, especially in the summer.

"Once you leave school, you don't have anything for kids to do. So they go out and vent," she said. "I tell (my children) every day, 'Don't go out and do nothing you wouldn't do at home.' "
Charleston Daily Mail - News - Accused vandals help workers clean school*

[Rick2]

I expect the ACLU to sue over that sometime soon. Those poor children.

[tattwd]

Blatent disrespect for society, It boggles my mind why parents don't know where their children are and what their doing. Their just eager to get a few moments by themselves. Parenting doesn't stop just because the kids are old enough to put up a fight.