Vee030473
03-31-2008, 08:14 AM
CAPE ELIZABETH (March 27, 2008): Cape Elizabeth High School was closed Monday after vandals trashed the interior, removing ceiling tiles, stuffing furniture in bathroom stalls and scrawling sexual, drug-related and profane graffiti on the walls.
Police Chief Neil Williams said 10 suspects have been identified and charges are pending. At the least, he said, the vandals could be charged with criminal mischief or aggravated criminal mischief. They also face a 10-day suspension and possible expulsion, Superintendent Alan Hawkins said.
Cape high school students will be required to make up the day on Saturday, Hawkins said.
All the suspects are seniors at the school, Hawkins said.
One of the vandals apparently entered through an unlocked window sometime Sunday night or early Monday morning and opened a locked door for the others, officials said. The school does not have an alarm system and the vandals placed tape over security video cameras, Hawkins said.
Williams said the vandalism apparently was intended as a senior prank.
“Unfortunately some of the things that they thought were pranks … it’s going to cost a little bit more to put it back together than they thought,” he said.
The damage was discovered at about 6:30 a.m. by a janitor, who contacted Hawkins. The superintendent immediately contacted local media to broadcast that the school would be closed.
Staff spent all day Monday fixing the damage, Hawkins said late Monday afternoon. He said school officials are still tabulating the costs of the damage and the make-up school day. He indicated the perpetrators could be liable for the expenses.
Ceiling tiles were removed and damaged on the second floor, Williams said, and desks were pulled out into the hall on the third floor. Furniture was also stuffed into bathroom stalls.
“There’s a lot of broken furniture and stuff like that,” Hawkins said. There were also “drawings on the walls, some foul language, some sexual language, some substance abuse language.”
He said peanut butter smeared on doorknobs is particularly problematic, because some students have severe peanut allergies. Students and staff have been taught since “day one” how to safely handle peanuts in order not to put their classmates in danger, he said; now, school staff would have to virtually sterilize the doorknobs.
“Of all the things they would use – peanut butter,” Hawkins said.
An annual senior prank is traditional in Cape Elizabeth, officials said, but never the full-scale vandalism seen Monday. Last year, Hawkins said, an inflatable gym was placed in the library, and a large tire was placed somewhere unusual.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you,” he said. “Senior prank is something that happens in high schools throughout the country but – I was shocked. They didn’t stop to realize that they were doing damage to the building, damage to the day and damage to the educational program for kids.”
Hawkins said the students would be immediately suspended for 10 days.
“Very probably I will be looking at expulsion for them,” he said. “(Graduation) is an issue that we will have to deal with … We will try to find a way for them to graduate.”
Hawkins said the vandalism apparently began sometime after the building was locked at 8:30 p.m. and took about two hours to complete.
School board member Jack Kennealy said the teens’ parents bear some of the responsibility for not knowing what their children were up to in the middle of the night on a school night.
“I’m very concerned that students were apparently out as late as they were without their parents being concerned where they were,” he said. “I think it’s a parental problem as well as a student problem. I think parents ought to know where their kids are.”
Police from South Portland and Scarborough assisted in the investigation, but the towns are not involved in the vandalism, Williams said.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=178711&ac=PHnws
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Police Chief Neil Williams said 10 suspects have been identified and charges are pending. At the least, he said, the vandals could be charged with criminal mischief or aggravated criminal mischief. They also face a 10-day suspension and possible expulsion, Superintendent Alan Hawkins said.
Cape high school students will be required to make up the day on Saturday, Hawkins said.
All the suspects are seniors at the school, Hawkins said.
One of the vandals apparently entered through an unlocked window sometime Sunday night or early Monday morning and opened a locked door for the others, officials said. The school does not have an alarm system and the vandals placed tape over security video cameras, Hawkins said.
Williams said the vandalism apparently was intended as a senior prank.
“Unfortunately some of the things that they thought were pranks … it’s going to cost a little bit more to put it back together than they thought,” he said.
The damage was discovered at about 6:30 a.m. by a janitor, who contacted Hawkins. The superintendent immediately contacted local media to broadcast that the school would be closed.
Staff spent all day Monday fixing the damage, Hawkins said late Monday afternoon. He said school officials are still tabulating the costs of the damage and the make-up school day. He indicated the perpetrators could be liable for the expenses.
Ceiling tiles were removed and damaged on the second floor, Williams said, and desks were pulled out into the hall on the third floor. Furniture was also stuffed into bathroom stalls.
“There’s a lot of broken furniture and stuff like that,” Hawkins said. There were also “drawings on the walls, some foul language, some sexual language, some substance abuse language.”
He said peanut butter smeared on doorknobs is particularly problematic, because some students have severe peanut allergies. Students and staff have been taught since “day one” how to safely handle peanuts in order not to put their classmates in danger, he said; now, school staff would have to virtually sterilize the doorknobs.
“Of all the things they would use – peanut butter,” Hawkins said.
An annual senior prank is traditional in Cape Elizabeth, officials said, but never the full-scale vandalism seen Monday. Last year, Hawkins said, an inflatable gym was placed in the library, and a large tire was placed somewhere unusual.
“I was shocked, to be honest with you,” he said. “Senior prank is something that happens in high schools throughout the country but – I was shocked. They didn’t stop to realize that they were doing damage to the building, damage to the day and damage to the educational program for kids.”
Hawkins said the students would be immediately suspended for 10 days.
“Very probably I will be looking at expulsion for them,” he said. “(Graduation) is an issue that we will have to deal with … We will try to find a way for them to graduate.”
Hawkins said the vandalism apparently began sometime after the building was locked at 8:30 p.m. and took about two hours to complete.
School board member Jack Kennealy said the teens’ parents bear some of the responsibility for not knowing what their children were up to in the middle of the night on a school night.
“I’m very concerned that students were apparently out as late as they were without their parents being concerned where they were,” he said. “I think it’s a parental problem as well as a student problem. I think parents ought to know where their kids are.”
Police from South Portland and Scarborough assisted in the investigation, but the towns are not involved in the vandalism, Williams said.
http://pressherald.mainetoday.com/story.php?id=178711&ac=PHnws
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