Teachers devastated by acts of vandalism

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WAILUKU - Vandals ravaged a St. Anthony Junior Senior High School building complex sometime Tuesday night, breaking into classrooms, smashing computer monitors, splattering paint on walls and emptying out lockers, said school spokeswoman Gin Nary.

"The teachers were devastated. We have very little, but what we do have, we try and maintain," she said of the private Catholic school in Wailuku. "The kids were just upset seeing this happen to their school."

Nary said teachers were calculating the losses Wednesday afternoon.

Police said a maintenance worker at the school called police when he discovered the damage at 4:45 a.m. Wednesday. Investigators documented six burglary cases and one attempted burglary in the rampage through the school building.

Police are asking for the public's help for any leads in the case, and police officials said they will step up monitoring of island schools at night.

Nary said the classrooms affected were in the school's Chaminade Hall that houses the science classrooms. A teachers' lounge was also ransacked.

She said aquariums were damaged and turtles were dumped into rubbish cans but were still alive when found by teachers and staff. Microscopes were also thrown to the floor.

Students also lost some of their possessions in the lockers, including a $1,500 keyboard that a student was not able to carry home Tuesday, Nary said.

She said the vandals also ate the "snack rewards" a teacher had for her students. VCRs and DVD players were also thrown outside in the rain.

Nary said at least a couple of classes were displaced for part of Wednesday as the rooms were being cleaned.

"We are fortunate, though, that as an ohana we pulled together to get things corrected as soon as possible so that the students would not be impacted," Nary said.

She said the Bishop Museum was on the campus conducting a workshop at the church center so some students from the damaged classrooms had somewhere else to go while their classrooms were being cleared.

Anyone with information may call the Maui police at 244-6400 or Maui Crime Stoppers at 242-6966. Callers to Crime Stoppers remain anonymous and are given a code number. Crime Stoppers pays cash rewards of up to $1,000 for information leading to the arrests and indictments of people responsible for felony crimes.

* Melissa Tanji can be reached at mtanji@mauinews.com.