SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO : Vandals Cause Heavy Damage at School

In the worst case of school vandalism reported here in recent years, intruders caused up to $20,000 in damage at Marco Forster Junior High School over the weekend.

“This is extremely distressing because this is the second major vandalism in less than three weeks at that school,� said Jacqueline Price, a spokeswoman for the Capistrano Unified School District. “Every time we have to spend money to clean up vandalism, we are taking that money out of the instructional programs.�

Authorities said one or more vandals broke into the main office of the school at 25601 Camino del Avion sometime between Friday evening and Sunday morning. The main office also suffered about $1,000 in damages when vandals ransacked it about three weeks ago, said Daniel J. Crawford, director of maintenance and operations.

In the incident over the weekend, the vandals destroyed office equipment, set off fire extinguishers, splattered typing correction fluid on the walls and scattered school records throughout the main office before moving on to the cafeteria, where they threw food and beverages around, Crawford said.

The vandals also broke into several classrooms, causing varying degrees of damage by throwing food, spray-painting vulgarities and splattering poster paint on the walls. The damage to three summer school classrooms was bad enough to render them “uninhabitable,� Price said.

Crawford said a crew of 11 janitors has already spent about 128 hours trying to clean up the mess. Meanwhile, summer school classes are continuing, although some students have had to move to other classrooms, Price said.

In the past, district officials have talked about improving school security by adding more sophisticated electronic burglar alarms, Price said. But those improvements would cost at least $1 million, about the same amount of money that the district would save if it raised the average class size by one student.

Last month, the financially strapped district had to cut about $10 million from its budget, including the elimination of 144 teaching and staff positions.

“We have limited resources from the state to offer our services,� Price said. “To take money from the educational program to add security to our schools would just be a travesty.�

Detectives with the Sheriff’s Department are investigating the incident. Anyone with information may also call the district maintenance department at (714) 489-7293.